What Causes Overwhelm

Overwhelmed Creatives is a multi-part series that teaches you the causes of overwhelm, and exactly what you can do to get out of overwhelm and into your creative power. Check out the series here. 

What Causes Overwhelm

One of the top struggles I hear from my clients is that there are so many things they want to do, they really want to contribute in ways they know they are capable of, AND they’re really overwhelmed. The core contributing factor that I’ve seen over and over is trying to do too much at one time. 

Our brains are like computer processors — they are really good at processing information. But like a computer, they can become overloaded when trying to do too much at the same time. And we all know what happens when we overload a computer: that colorful spinning wheel of death. In addition to freezing up and not working, an overloaded computer also slows down and works inefficiently. You aren’t able to utilize its capabilities. It might shut down and restart itself. Sometimes you can even fry the circuitry. And sometimes it will stop functioning completely. 

Imagine a different scenario: you run one program at a time and complete the task in its entirety, save it, quit the program, take a break, plan your next task, then begin again. I know I know, this sounds so boring right? But doesn’t it also sound like a huge relief? Imagine what you could achieve if you allow yourself, and I mean truly give yourself permission to, slow down and focus on one project at a time. You’d focus all of your energy on creating it to the best of your ability, share it/publish it/launch it, get to experience the joy of witnessing the impact, complete the project, then begin again. 

Challenges and What to Do

Two challenges will arise should you choose this different scenario: 

1. Negative emotions, like boredom or restlessness
2. Being in hurry to achieve 

Both challenges are due to the same core reason: not wanting to feel negative emotions. If you’re willing to feel negative emotions like boredom, restlessness, shame, humiliation, frustration, etc. then you won’t be in a rush to achieve. The only reason you’re in a rush to achieve is that you think you’ll feel better ‘there’, when you’ve achieved your goal, than you do here. But life is filled with positive and negative experiences, right? You know that since you have tons of evidence in your past of both. Know that part of our human nature is to thrash and try to negotiate, to do anything to avoid the negative experiences. BUT the only reason we do that is because we are unwilling to feel negative emotion. If you’re willing to feel negative emotion, you can truly do anything. 

What Do You Have to Lose?

Would you be willing to experiment for 30/60/90 days where you focus on a single goal every day? Then you can take in the data of what it’s like to constrain for a period of time, build self-trust by practicing and keeping that commitment to yourself, and build your self-confidence that you’re capable of taking action over and over while feeling all the feels until you achieve your project goal. What do you think?

READY TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR CREATIVE CONFIDENCE?

If fear and doubt are holding you back, APPLY TO MY COACHING PROGRAM where I give you the tools you need to show up with unshakeable self-belief and confidence so you can create and contribute in ways you KNOW you are capable of.