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When You Feel Overwhelmed STOP and Take Back Control
When being overwhelmed causes your progress to come to a grinding halt, it’s time to discover new ways to deal with the enormous amount of work you have to accomplish as a solo entrepreneur.
Today you can be particularly overwhelmed by the rapid pace the world is changing and how technology is steaming ahead. Never before has the world moved at such a fast pace and presented so much to learn and understand.
As an entrepreneur, there is much to do and learn every day. There are also people demanding your time and the competition is always forging ahead. Somehow, you regain control and stop the downward spiral.
The best step to take when you’re feeling overwhelmed is to stop and analyze what’s happening. It may be hard to do because your instinct is to keep pressing forward in a panic – even if you’re not accomplishing anything significant.
As a business person, you have to be present every day and be productive if your business is going to succeed. But there are also demands from other areas of your life – family, friends and taking some time for yourself.
If those needs aren’t met, your life will seem unfulfilling and you may get overwhelmed. To gain control of your time and efforts, you first need to know what your priorities are. No one can do everything at once (even those who think multi-tasking is the way to go).
Sometimes it can be difficult to choose those priorities and they may all seem equally important. Of course, your first priority should be your own well-being. If you don’t take care of yourself both mentally and physically, then you won’t be able to enjoy your success.
Then make sure you focus on your family. If you don’t have their support, relationships may be damaged and everything you’ve worked for will crumble. The next priority should be your business – and for entrepreneurs, it’s likely to be a higher priority than for most people.
After all, you’re not simply dealing with a 9-5 job. Things are bound to pile up and you may be projecting into the future and not dealing with the present moment. This can cause confusion and feelings of panic.
When you’re dealing with what you can do right now, you’re practicing mindfulness, which is needed to focus and you’re putting the “what ifs” in the background to address at a later time.
Accept that you’re going to feel overwhelmed sometimes. It’s the nature of the business. But it doesn’t need to cause you to become paralyzed. Stopping to assess the situation and create a plan of action can put you back on track.
