Speaking to entrepreneurs throughout the week, various people bring up the same topic, so I know it’s time to pay attention.
Last week the topic that resurfaced and resounded is overwhelm.
Natural overwhelm comes about when you have distinct duties and tasks you must perform but cannot get it all done yourself within
the necessary timeframe. Imagine being the chef, wait staff, host and dishwasher all by yourself in a restaurant. These are all activities that must be performed in a restaurant but nearly impossible to get it all done yourself.
I’m going to go one step further and discuss “perceived overwhelm”.
What is “perceived overwhelm”?
Typically, perceived overwhelm is the result of external sources telling you what you should get done in order to be successful.
In the case of perceived overwhelm, you have staff for your restaurant, but are now pushed to spend your time creating and testing new recipes, investing in new financial opportunities, interviewing possible additional staff, redecorating the dining room, and shopping for new commercial equipment, all at the same time.
All of those items may help your journey to success, BUT when you fold them all in together, you can’t handle it all and you feel paralyzed. Even worse, that state of paralysis brings shame.
This is what I’ve been hearing from entrepreneurs – the shame when they “can’t get it all done”. The worst part of this self-defeating attitude is that they are convinced that their inability to accomplish it all will keep them from ever becoming successful.
Being a business owner is challenging enough – why would we allow an outside “authority” to sneak into our heads and cause this feeling of hopeless defeat and shame?
Reclaiming Ownership of our Business and our Mindset
We not only own the business, we own our headspace – and bullies are not allowed!
I get it – experts are there to tell us what we can do to get to the next level when we’re ready. And most gurus are NOT actually telling us to get it all done at the same time – but we perceive it that way. Entrepreneurs are doers and not afraid to take on a challenge. So we accept multiple challenges to our own detriment.
A winning strategy is to PAUSE and create a workable plan before we jump into action.
Goal Planning To The Rescue: Get Started Right Now
The first step in goal planning is to free-think all the things we’d like to work on and achieve. Put down your phone, push away from the computer and use good old paper.
Without analysis or organization, write a list of things you would love to accomplish that may move you forward to a successful outcome. It can include items you already have started and items you are not sure you’ll ever get to.
Suspend all judgement and just compile a big ol’ list.
The simple act of dumping it all on paper is freeing because now it won’t circle your mind, around and around. You’ve pulled it out of your head and parked it on paper. I know the list is long and starts to feel uncomfortable, but for now just appreciate that you’ve evicted it out of your head.
Next time – we’ll talk about beginning to organize it all.