Take a deep breath.
Inhale, exhale.
How does that feel?
Being honest, this last month has definitely been a challenge. Balancing my full-time job with prepping for this Saturday’s live clarity masterclass, preparing to launch the next round of Kick-Start Your Life Academy, along with traveling and day-to-day responsibilities…overwhelmed is definitely one of the words I’d use to describe how I’ve been feeling lately.
However, when I have important deadlines to meet in any area of my life, I can’t allow the stress and lack of motivation from my long to-do list take over to the point of burnout.
I have to keep going.
Have you ever felt like this?
Stressed, swamped with responsibilities, but little wiggle room to take time off?
This current time in my life is giving me flashbacks to life in college: Working myself to the bone studying for exams, writing an essay, or working on a group project all while working at the same time. (Plus attempting to have a social life? A girl can dream, right?)
When you have a hard deadline for an assignment in school, very rarely can you talk to your teacher to turn in an assignment on a later date.
While yes, I do currently have more flexibility to adjust my own deadlines compared to when I was in school, but a huge goal of mine this year is to keep the promises I make to myself. In Rachel Hollis’ popular book, Girl Wash Your Face, the first chapter tackles the issue with how easy it is to break our own promises. Usually, it’s easy to break a promise to ourselves compared to the promises we keep with other people.
But what about when our promises to ourselves become a lot to balance with our already busy schedules?
After all, that’s why we put off our own deadlines, right? There’s too much going on, it’s too hard, it’ll take too long to figure out…blah blah blah.
The reality is, we can keep our promises to ourselves, we just have to change our approach and mindset when it comes to working towards our goals.
Continuing to work towards your goals while balancing a busy schedule, feeling unmotivated, and avoiding burnout isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible.
In fact, I discovered some helpful tips that can help you get out of your rut and back in the saddle to conquering your upcoming deadlines:
Tap Into Your “Why”
Why are you doing what you’re doing? Why are you going through all of this effort to accomplish these deadlines? Think back to when you first started and set your goals. Once you remember the driving force behind why you’re working towards your goals, tap into the initial inspiration felt when you first began. Keep this “why” and motivation in mind when things grow tough and motivation feels less than inspiring.
Identify What’s Causing Your Current Feelings
Trust your gut. What are the first three things that come to mind that might be causing you to feel overwhelmed or in a slump? For example, when I was thinking about this a few weeks ago, I was honest with myself and confessed these three factors were causing me to feel unmotivated and uninspired:
- Watching too much TV
- Dealing with a lot at my 9-5
- Fear
That’s right, fear was definitely one of the first things that came to mind when I was reflecting on what was impacting the way I was feeling. Once I realized this, I changed my habits to watch TV with more intention (for breaks rather than hours upon hours of episodes) and made an effort to pay attention to my thought patterns. I was able to identify when my thoughts were coming from a place of fear, rather than confidence and trust that I can accomplish the big goals I’m tackling on for the first time
Squeeze in Small Moments of Self-Care
When you’re in a bind for time, you won’t always be able to take a day off for your mental health. Instead, find small windows of time to be able to squeeze in even 10 minutes of self-care. This can be something simple such as a 10-minute meditation (I like finding quick practices on Insight Timer), a 15-minute stress-relief yoga session, or a five-minute brain-dump journaling exercise. Even taking a few moments to focus on your breathing and centering your thoughts every once in a while can make a world of a difference in the long run.
Rather than waiting until you’re fully burnt out to regain your motivation and energy, pay attention to these three factors more regularly while you’re working hard. You’d be surprised how just five minutes of your day with a quick mindset shift can make a world of a difference to help propel you forward and avoid feeling fully overwhelmed from your day to day responsibilities.
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