I love when people do “Ask Me Anything” question boxes on Instagram. It’s fun to get to know more or less random facts about people or what they think about a topic. For this blog series, I will be responding to some questions that folks have asked me in the past few months. There is a variety of topics like decluttering, planning, homeschooling, and more. In this blog post, I will respond to this question about motivation and overwhelm:
How do you keep yourself motivated and prevent overwhelm? How do you deal with overwhelm when it arises?
Quick Response
It has less to do with motivation than it is with knowing what my goals are and how to adjust my next right steps when necessary after I reassess the situation. When overwhelm arises, I take a deep breath and say a prayer.
A More Thoughtful Response
Motivation is part of how I keep going BUT it’s definitely not how I prevent overwhelm. To keep motivated, I find a community of people who are working on the same or similar goals. I know I’m not alone and we’re making progress as a collective. All that said, there’s no amount of motivation that will make me want to do certain things- like sweat and have aching muscles from a workout, or step into the cobwebs of a neglected tool shed that needs cleaning out (don’t ask). I LOVE the results of workouts and cleaning but I’d prefer if they don’t involve sweat, aching, and cobwebs.
I prevent overwhelm by having a plan. Naturally, I see projects in the big picture before I focus in to break them into tasks. When I don’t have the brain space to get focused, I become paralyzed by the bigness of the projects. My body’s immediate response is panic and whatever the term is for on-the-verge-of-hyperventilation if that term exists. This usually happens if I overcommit which I try not to do anymore. When I’m able to focus on small tasks that move the projects forward, I’m more at ease.
Of course, I know life happens and things don’t always go accordingly. That’s where breathing and prayer come in. Someone else can explain the science of how taking a deep breath and breathing exercises can help us, but I know that helps me with the whole hyperventilation thing when overwhelm arises. Then, I pray. It’s not always a long prayer, but quickly connecting with the God of the universe reminds me most decisions I make aren’t life or death decisions. He is in over all and in all. I assess the situation and try to figure out the next right thing for me.
Other Thoughts on Motivation and Overwhelm
It has taken me a long, long time to get to this point. I’m still learning and growing. Sometimes I fall back into old bad habits of taking on too much, doing too much at once, or trying to take on tasks that should be delegated to someone else. It’s definitely not a one-and-done deal to stay motivated and overcome overwhelm in the things we are working on, but a life-long journey where we might fall and need to get up again. That’s something most of us don’t want to hear/read. This is where character-building comes in – perseverance, hard work, dedication, and resilience. And we find out that community is a huge part of it too. We experience kindness and gratitude. As usual, I’m not sure I did a great job of answering the questions, but those are some of my thoughts.
Conclusion
If there are big goals you have set as your priority, you will need more than motivation to keep you going. Olympians, notable award-winner folks, and others who are top performers in their field aren’t always motivated to do the work. They show up because they set a goal and are committed to bringing it to completion. There are instances where people have no control over their life, but if you’re reading this, I think it is safe to say, that is not 100% your situation. In that case, you’ll find that when you take a longer look you have more agency than you think over some of the choices you get to make. Something I’m working on is to stop complaining about what I can’t do but figure out what I can do. We just need to find that next right thing for us.
How do you keep yourself motivated and prevent overwhelm? How do you deal with overwhelm when it arises?
Related:
- Book: *Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt
- Book: *The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman
- Article: Breathing Techniques for Stress Relief
- Community: The Accountability Community <– my community ❤️
- Community: *Hello Mornings Academy
- Resource: *Full Focus Planner
*Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a tiny percentage if you make a purchase through my link at no extra cost to you. Read my disclosure policy here.