What To Do When The “Weight Of The World” Is On Your Shoulders

For all you heavy lifters out there.

Photo by Kelly Lacy from Pexels

Metaphorically feeling “the weight of the world on your shoulders” can quite literally crush the life out of you and leave you feeling helpless and unable to move. Maybe you’re familiar with the feeling?

• You take on more responsibility than you can handle and the weight of the responsibility leaves you feeling incapable of doing any of it.
• You get confronted with too many decisions—tough decisions—and feel the crippling effect of decision paralysis.
• You inflate your expectations so much that everything you do feels insufficient—and your expectations squeeze the “try” right out of you.

But, how can a metaphorical mental model leave you feeling literally crushed?

The life-changing impact of mental models

A mental model is a simplified explanation of something more complex. Given the nature of simplification, mental models don’t always covey the complete picture, but they are great at communicating fundamental truths and feelings.

In the above example, rather than communicate each and every problem and challenge in complex, crippling detail — the mental model boils down the…