Last year, out of curiosity, I decided to undergo training in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to become a certified NLP Practitioner. It was a fantastic course with an equally fantastic trainer. One of many memorable moments was a conversation we had about Overwhelm.
This centred mainly on mitigating feelings of anxiety but nonetheless I found it applicable for day-to-day management of a busy life, and it was one of those eureka! moments for me.
Overwhelm is easily created, anyone can do it. Our trainer gave a demonstration of just how easy it is using something as simple as cleaning your teeth. Using that example, I’ll show you how it is done.
For good hygiene it is commonly accepted practice to clean our teeth a minimum of two times a day. For mathematical purposes, let’s agree this activity takes about 5 minutes from start to finish. This equates to 10 minutes out of your day - did you realise that? Again for mathematical purposes let’s say we start cleaning our teeth at 2 years of age and continue until we’re 85 years old. Five minutes a session, two times a day, 365 days of the year, for 83 years - that is a grand total of 302,950 minutes spent cleaning your teeth. Now, if you thought about having to spend that much time doing it each time you went to clean your teeth, how would you feel about it? Would it feel like a chore?
Simply put, the message here is that looking at the scale of a task or a collection of tasks can be daunting. If I look across everything I have on my current ‘To do’ list, at work or personally, panic creeps in and I wonder how I am going to deal with it all. Focusing on the enormity of the tasks before us can lead to feelings of overwhelm, and often results in procrastination, compounding the issue.
The trick is (and I want to make it known I am no expert, yet) to break things down into manageable chunks, bite size pieces that your mind can digest as achievable. Then work through those pieces one at a time, remembering to pat yourself on the back as you complete each piece. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day; it is important to be realistic when setting time goals. Create yourself a plan, along a timeline that feels achievable for you, and action your plan piece by piece. You may find you are amazed at what you can achieve. Say goodbye to the feeling of overwhelm, and hello to a cool-calm-collected, more effective, you.
There is a lot of information about NLP available on the net. Here is a link defining NLP if you are interested in knowing more: http://www.charlottehinksman.com/what.htm