I gave this speech to my Toastmasters club on May 13, 2009. It was my attempt to work through the overwhelm occurring in my life at that point.
Arrrrgh! I can’t take it anymore! I’ve had enough! I’m so overwhelmed my head is spinning. Mister/Madam Chair, fellow Toastmasters, and honoured guests, we all face overwhelm in our lives to some degree or another. It’s a condition of our society today as we strive to be the best workers, parents, family members, friends, and community members.
I face overwhelm on a daily basis as I strive to build my business to the next level while at the same time dealing with a crisis in my church that is threatening to rip us apart – a crisis not of my own making but one that I’m deeply entrenched in because the key players are some of my closest friends.
Some of you were here when I gave my second speech on being highly sensitive. It’s a trait that I share with about 20% of the population. Being Highly Sensitive means that my nervous system is extremely sensitive to any kind of stimulation like stress and overwhelm, loud noises, scratchy fabrics, or too much going on at the same time. When my nervous system gets too overloaded I have to remove the stimulation or withdraw to a quiet place until I’m calm again.
Overwhelm is something that I’ve been fighting against for years. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t feel overwhelmed. The good news is now I can do something about it. My life coach Jo has been working with me to combat it for 3 ½ years now. Today I’d like to share with you three action steps I take to overcome overwhelm.
The first action is to create daily Priority Wheels and set my Intentions. A Priority Wheel is like a pie chart for your life. I have 4 areas of my life that I concentrate on. Everyone’s priorities will be different and they can change over time. Right now, mine are Business, Community, Self, and Financial. Each day I give a percentage of time and energy to each category. The key to a Priority Wheel is to balance the categories each day as best as you can.
After I create my Priority Wheel, I set my intentions for the day. I ask myself how I want to experience the day and how I want to feel during the day. I usually come up with words like productive, calm, peaceful, energetic, eloquent, and happy.
Doing these two simple steps helps to set up my day and combat overwhelm immediately.
The second step I have taken to overcome overwhelm is to create systems. As I’m getting more and more writing assignments, I’ve set up an online calendar in my e-mail program to keep track of my deadlines. I list what they are and when they are due. I can cross them off when they are completed and then hide them. The best thing about that is Unhiding the completed assignments to see how much I’ve actually accomplished. It’s a real motivator!
Since my e-mail is web-based and I don’t always have my laptop with me or Internet access readily available, I also keep a paper planner. This is my life and I would be absolutely lost without it. Instead of just being a list of To Do’s, I’ve colour-coded my week.
- Pink – Heart’s Write
- Green – Financial
- Orange – Personal
- Yellow – Volunteer
- Blue – Another business venture
I also cross off these tasks once they’re done and that gives me a feeling of accomplishment.
The third action step I take is setting boundaries. I know what my saturation level is and I take care to not reach it. For example, I knew this was going to be a very busy week with four deadlines due plus this speech so I told a prospective client to contact me next week to discuss the books she wants me to write for her. I was protecting my nervous system by not accepting more work than I knew I could handle during the week.
The key to this step is deciding what you will allow and what you will not allow and then sticking to that decision. To make it easier to decide if you will accept a request, refer back to the Priority Wheel from the first step. Does the request fit into one of your priorities? If it doesn’t, you have the right to reject the request. You can explain why you are rejecting the request or you can simply say “No” without an explanation.
Today, I’ve shared with you my struggle against overwhelm and three specific action steps I take to combat it. I set my priorities and intentions daily with a Priority Wheel, I use systems like a day planner and an online calendar to keep track of deadlines and To Do’s, and I’ve set boundaries that I use to protect myself.
I’ve learned a lot about myself during this fight to combat overwhelm. I’ve learned to focus on the priorities. I’ve learned to set boundaries for myself. I’ve learned to create systems that work for me. Most of all, I’ve learned that overwhelm can’t kill me (even though it seems like it sometimes) and that’s why I’ve been speaking to you today about it.
