Dealing with overwhelm and low productivity
Do you ever feel like you have so many things to do and so little time to get them done? And not even the best certified life coach in the world could help you? Do you ever feel like life is happening to you and sometimes the high quality of your life or day just isn’t there anymore? There are no achievements of goals that you can remember?
In our fast-paced life we want to be many things, wonderful parents, lovers, business people with expertise business coaching, friends and contributors to others. In addition, we want to have lots of energy, money and to live a healthy life that is fun, fulfilling and rewarding. It is no wonder that overwhelm seems to become a common side effect.
I say that feeling overwhelmed is an “effect” because any feeling we have must have been produced by something prior to that feeling. Your thoughts, reactions and actions produce your feelings. So, what is the solution for eliminating your overwhelm and feeling less than highly productive? How can you help yourself experience more achievement of goals?
In my own quest to manage all of my daily, weekly and monthly responsibilities, and personal desires and to live an abundant and fulfilling life, I created a values-based decision and action process for myself that many other people have found useful. I hope you do also and that you embrace it as a form of conscious guided meditation of some type.
First and foremost, it does not need to be complicated. Simplicity is the way of nature and nature does what she does with maximum efficiency, on time, every time. So, it doesn’t take executive business coaching to know you don’t want to mess with that formula of success.
So, with that said, let me ask you a question. Of all the things you value in your life… what do you value the most? Is it your health? You connection with God? Making money? Your children? Your family? Doing charitable things? Compassion? Peace? Serenity?
We developed and acquired most of our values and achievement goals from our parents and teachers during our very early years of imprinting and through our modeling and mirroring stages between the ages of 14-21. Some of what our parents/teachers valued and deemed important to them may not be what we value most or what will serve our lives best.
When you start your day off with what you value most, your sense of doing and living with your highest purpose and for your highest values makes you feel great every day.
We all get caught up in everything there is to do and we get overwhelmed when we do not get it all done. It seems our day has just slipped by again. A common theme and lesson taught by certified life coaches is that by doing THE highest and most important stuff first, every day, the little things that don’t get done seem trivial. In addition, by prioritizing what is really important and MUST get done vs. all the stuff that needs to get done, you begin to shift your mentality to one of high impact and high value.
There are two steps to this process and they both require a bit of thinking and planning.
After guided meditation or any other time, take 15 minutes and write down all the things you value in your life. When you are done, rate them from 1-10 or more.
Next, ask yourself this question:
What must I do today to act upon my highest value?
For example, if health is on your list as one of the top things you value, what can you do every day (including today) to make sure that you take care of that value? You then schedule that somewhere in your day and you make sure you do it. If it’s being connected to God, what can you do every day, including today, to take care of that value?
When you take care of the highest values and most important things first, your life has more meaning and you feel fulfilled.
In addition, when you have lists upon lists of things to do, you cannot give the same value to all the stuff on the list. You must prioritize the ones that will have the highest impact on whatever outcome you want for your achievement of goals. Not all your activities are worth or are valued the same. Learn to say “no,” and learn to prioritize your to-do list and do only your highest-impact or income-producing activities first.
This process may take you 10 minutes a day, and it will save you hours every day when you apply it. Here is a Daily-To-Do document I use to plan my day.
Feel free to use the Daily-To-Do and please pass it on to friends (The “Share This” link at the lower left allows you to e-mail this to friends, and to Digg it, which is another great way to pass it on. You can also Digg it from the link in the upper right corner).
You can use the Daily-To-Do for both your personal life and your business. Filling this out daily will keep you focused and help you achieve more than ever before.
All my best,
John
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