How often do you feel like the walls are closing in on you?
Your head won’t stop spinning, telling you all the things you should be doing and need to get done: Did you remember to follow up with that client? What should you be doing on Facebook? What are you doing to promote your upcoming speaking gig?
Being an entrepreneur can be overwhelming. Believe me, I get it!
When you’re just starting off, there are so many different things you can do to grow your business. It’s so easy to get dragged off course by the Big O - OVERWHELM! Which is why I’ve been working with myself, my team, and my clients to identify the strategies that REALLY WORK!
So here you go, Sister… my 3 favorite cures for overwhelm. I use these strategies, and so do my clients, year after year, to POP themselves OUT of OVERWHELM! It’s time for you to have these cures, too, so you can overcome overwhelm and rock your business.
Cure For Overwhelm #1: Build Flex Time Into Your Schedule & Be Willing To Say No
A little while ago, I participated in a writing retreat with Elizabeth Gilbert. During lunch, I asked her what her biggest challenge was in becoming Elizabeth Gilbert. She told me, “Sage, the biggest challenge was that I didn’t just need to say NO to the things I didn’t want to do. I had to say NO to the things I really wanted to do.”
To have the business of my dreams, there are going to be sacrifices. It doesn’t mean I don’t do self-care and cultivate relationships with my friends and family. It just means there are some things I would say YES to if I didn’t have my business, things I now end up saying NO to.
Ask yourself: What’s more important? Your dream business or some of the other things you’re filling your schedule and life with?
You’ve gotta say NO to things so that you have flex time in your schedule. You’ve gotta have spaciousness. This is where the million dollar brainstorms come from. It’s where the energy to build your platform and get out there comes from.
Having spaciousness allows the inspiration to bubble up. When you can tap into the thing that’s most alive for you and put it out there in a timely manner, often it’s the thing that’s most alive for your potential clients too. They’ll see the video you create or read your article or hear you at your speaking gig and say, “Wow… it’s like you read my mind.” They’ll be more likely to say YES to working with you ‘cause they’ll see how much you get them and what they’re going through.
Comment below: What do you need to say NO to this week in order to build in flex time to your schedule?
Cure For Overwhelm #2: Ramp Up Your Self-Care
As your leadership goes up, guess what has to happen to match that leadership? Your self-care has to increase to maintain the ramp up.
What I mean by leadership: taking risks, putting yourself out there, getting on video, stretching your muscles and doing things you’ve never done before, increasing your visibility… all of this stretches YOU and your nervous system! So you need more self care than ever before.rnMore walksrnMore meditationrnMore downtimernMore salt bathsrnMore time in nature
Ask yourself: How can you take immaculate care of yourself so you can show up and take these risks while having the energy and vitality that magnetizes people?
So often we think that our bodies breaking down is a sign that something is wrong or we’re not cut out for this. What if that’s not actually the case?
David Whyte, one of my favorite poets, says, “The cure to exhaustion isn’t necessarily rest; it’s wholeheartedness.”
It’s not always that you’re working too hard and that’s why your body is breaking down Your gremlins will try to make a strong case for why you should slow down and not go beyond your comfort zone anymore. But don’t listen to them. Remember: you are not your thoughts and your thoughts are not always true!
Instead, consider this…
Have you ever had an experience of your mind saying, “I’m exhausted. I just can’t take one more step.” And then you do a client session or a speaking engagement or make a video and afterwards you’re on FIRE! You feel amazing! You laugh at how you felt exhausted just a little while ago. What changed?
You opened your heart channel and let the Universe flow through you!
What if the cure to exhaustion is actually wholeheartedness?
Comment below: What self-care activities will you engage in this month to allow the Universe to flow through you?
Cure For Overwhelm #3: Get It Out Of Your Head
If you’re keeping to-do lists in your head, you’re wasting valuable mental energy. You want to be freed up to be the channel and the thought leader you’re meant to be! So you’ve GOT TO get your lists and ideas OUT of your head and into your calendar or on paper.
I’m so grateful for my team, and for anyone who has ever worked for me! When I need help, I tell them. I send them texts, post new tasks in our project management software, send them an email… I send it off and then let it go.
Until you have an assistant or a team yourself, you need to train yourself to do what I did when I first started out: I’d have an idea of something I needed to do, like promote my upcoming speaking gig, and would open up my calendar and actually PUT IT IN as a task to do on, say, Wednesday from 2-4pm.
This way, instead of the idea taking up mental real estate, I got it out on paper in a tangible and pragmatic way that ensured I was actually IN ACTION with it. This also served the purpose of creating a schedule that contained my higher priority activities. So instead of taking off work early on Wednesday since nothing was on my calendar, I’d sit at my desk and actually PROMOTE my event!
When we have to-do lists in our head, we feel overwhelmed. When we create 3-mile long to-do lists on paper or on our computer, we feel overwhelmed.
Ask yourself: What are the all the tasks and ideas that have been taking up precious mental energy? Write them out on paper. Then put the most important, income-generating activities IN YOUR CALENDAR.
Now you know my 3 favorite cures for overwhelm:
#1: Build Flex Time Into Your Schedule & Be Willing To Say Norn#2: Ramp Up Your Self-Carern#3: Get It Out Of Your Head
You can use these everyday to tap into being more grounded, peaceful and productive, so you can be more available for yourself, your business and your life.
Comment below and let me know, what is the biggest trigger that sends you into overwhelm? What is the story going on in your head or the external situations going on? AND, this is super important too, Sister… let me know which cure are you going to try using FIRST to get out of overwhelm?
Let’s do this thing… together!
***rnJoin Sage for her annual 3-Day Event, Women Rocking Business LIVE, on March 19th - 21st. In addition to learning how to master your money, marketing and mindset, you’ll also learn more feminine strategies and tools for getting out of overwhelm and confusion to launch a business you love, that loves you back, so you live the life you want and give back to the world in amazing ways. Click here for details and to register:
https://womenrockingbusiness.com/wls-purchase/ (Event is already 85% sold out.)