Am I As Overwhelmed As I Feel?
Imagine you’ve just been dropped into the middle of the ocean with nothing around you. You’re flailing and panicking as waves crash over. You can’t see the shore, it’s raining, there are no boats around, and it’s starting to get dark. You’re fighting for survival, and you don’t know if you’re going to make it. You’re exhausted! Now, imagine you knew that you would survive.
Everything then changes: When you know that you will make it back to shore, you can calm down and focus on figuring out a plan to get there.
Life rarely throws us — literally — into the middle of an ocean. It never puts anything in front of you that you can’t handle (you wouldn’t be here right now if it did). But you often feel overwhelmed anyway — perhaps it’s the frustration of a struggling business plan, looking for a new job, a feuding friendship, a credit card bill that isn’t shrinking, or how to find clients for your business. Your focus and your resources continue to be drawn and quartered, and often you know you need to do something different but aren’t sure what it is or how to do it. You get paralyzed and panic.
You are resilient and infinitely resourceful
But when you realize you’re not going to literally drown and that you can handle whatever is in front of you— knowing it truly, in your gut not just between your ears —you all of a sudden feel empowered, resourceful and lighter. The mountain that was once daunting now looks like an interesting challenge. The day-to-day of life — not just its destinations —appear enjoyable again.
Think about hindsight. The challenges you’ve gone through in the past may have once seemed impossible, but you got through them because you always get through them. Human beings are incredibly resilient, but in the middle of a challenge, we often don’t feel resilient and resourceful. When this happens remind yourself often that you are resilient and infinitely resourceful. When you calm down, and stop flailing and worrying about drowning in whatever challenge consumes you right now, then you can use your common sense to create a plan, solve the challenges, and move forward.
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