The Real Cause of Overwhelm and What to Do About It.
Most creatives, performers and arts leaders I know struggle consistently with overwhelm, stress and burnout.
The underlying culprit around stress and burn out is time management, prioritization and goal setting. Most people know this is important but struggle to do it. The biggest obstacle is not lack of knowledge-it's lack of self-worth.
The fear of upsetting people plus perceiving it's not OK to set boundaries or hold others accountable (for fear of confrontation) is the biggest cause of distress and overwhelm. The shift in focus must become HOW can we achieve this most efficiently and effectively instead of running your day by putting out fires based on urgency.
It’s easy to get caught in the weeds when constantly at the mercy of others’ timing, communication and lack of follow through.
If you’re not dealing with a team or community of intrinsically driven people who hold themselves accountable for getting something done and figuring it out on their own, then you’ll need systems and processes that are so fundamentally sound, things can still run without you having to save the day.
To strategically plan, one must be resourceful, grounded and present enough to operate out of the executive center of the brain. This is the part that can access inspiration, hold paradox and problem solve. This is where one can reverse engineer, objectively assess what’s working and what’s not.
Most people have been immersed in a culture or family dynamic that reinforces a belief that self-care (such as getting a massage, getting a full 8 hours of sleep or taking a day off) is selfish, indulgent or means you’re lazy or undisciplined… that internal belief will keep reinforcing that powering through and self-sacrifice is the best and only strategy and it will interfere again and again with finding new strategies and solutions that empower job performance from a place of resourcefulness.
Here are three things to assist you in transforming your habit of running on fumes by powering through, to more efficient and effective optimal performance.
Go through your calendar and delegate and eliminate everything that is non-essential. Block off the liberated time for rest, exercise, meditation, getting off the grid, a massage, getting out in nature, family time or reading a book-anything that helps you rest and restore.
Revisit and clarify your vision: remind yourself what all of this is for anyway. What is the long-term vision you are trying to achieve and what are the highest priority actions you can take to achieve those goals? Remind yourself what you do best and what is the most essential use of your time. Prioritize that and delegate lesser priorities to someone that can do it better than you and for less money that what it costs for you to do it. Increase your self-awareness and get precise in how you operate-what energizes you and what drains you. Block off the time that you are most energized and resourceful for the tasks and behaviors that get the most optimal performance out of you. Eliminate habits of using your best time for the lowest priority tasks that drain and frustrate you.
Get honest about who you’re trying to please. Whoever you perceive you can’t afford to disappoint or have be upset with you is running your life. The fear of upsetting them or seeking their approval is a polarized emotional state that occupies space and time in your mind, leads to distress and that causes tension and upset in the body. This affects digestion, sleep quality and your ability to focus and be resilient and adaptable. Write down who it is and ask yourself what are the drawbacks to your vision and highest priority goals of trying to please this individual and have them like and approve of you? What are the benefits to risking their upset or disapproval? The cost of seeking external approval is your own authenticity and agency. Only you can have certainty in your decisions and actions and that comes from a place of objective poise and a balanced state of resilience and the ability to see both benefits and drawbacks in every action.
The challenge is that no one will every give you permission to set boundaries that are in your best interest. Only you can do that.
Self-worth comes from knowing what inspires you, what you are best at, master-planning your time and goals to fulfill the things that matter most and taking care of yourself so you can deliver your best performance-at work and in life.