5 Practices to Reduce Overwhelm

With so many things pulling for our time and attention it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Here are 5 practices to ground you.

🌷 center yourself every morning
🌷 you can’t save people
🌷 do the hard thing
🌷 unplug + recharge daily
🌷 guard your heart

Try one of these things daily for a week and see how much better you feel. I’m cheering for you!

Center Yourself

Before you jump into your day set aside 30 minutes to center yourself. This might include reading a devotional, a daily reader, cardio, or enjoying your favorite coffee. Stay out of email, your day will be off to the races soon enough.

Then make a list of the top 3 things to accomplish for the day. These can be personal or business. Put them in order of importance. You decide your day, NOT your inbox, team, or clients. “Emergencies” aren’t priorities.

You’re Not the Hero

Say no to things that don’t support your list. Or delegate them. You aren’t the hero. You’re the guide. Empowering people to contribute to the mission.

Effective leadership requires teaching how-to and then getting out of the way for people to solve their own problems. They build confidence when you give them autonomy. This is a lifelong practice….including for me.

Do the Hard Thing

Many times our stress is a result of things we have left undone. Decisions we haven’t made. Conversations we’re avoiding. Action we’re putting off until the right time.

Make the decision. You’ll win or learn. Start the conversation with curiosity. Curiosity makes it a lot easier to solve the problem together. What’s one small thing you can do to make progress on a project? Start there.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much better you feel when you fail forward. You’re capable of hard things!

Unplug + Recharge

You can be passionate about something without letting it consume you. Letting it consume you contributes to a loss of identity when life throws a curveball. You’re greater than your title, profession, and awards.

Excellence isn’t achieved by always being on. It’s necessary to unplug every day. It’s necessary to recharge. Unplug is to stop output. Recharge is to restore energy, get inspired, try new things, think, and explore.

Create margin in your schedule to do both.

Guard Your Heart

Filter what information you consume. Too much of anything can be a bad thing. Retrain your thoughts. Feelings aren’t facts. Protect your energy.