In the Inside Living Savvy series, I’ll be sharing my experience of creating an online lifestyle program for women aspiring to live extraordinary lives. Join me for a peek behind the scenes.
The last six months have been an emotional rollercoaster ride – one moment I’ll be slumped at the bottom of the track looking at the long climb ahead, feeling desperate and overwhelmed, the next moment I’ll be cresting the heights, exhilarated and optimistic about the future.
Andrew and I have invested so much into my dream – this living savvy (ad)venture – and despite our best plans, there are always challenges. The financial downturn, plus bad weather, impacted on our other business (construction), which lead to greater financial pressures.
I’ve slumped on the kitchen floor and shed a tear. I’ve sat bolt upright in bed at 2:00am, heart racing and breath ragged, with a voice of doom in my head, ‘What the hell are you doing?!’
These are the techniques I use to find a way forward when I feel paralysed by fear…
Remember: this moment WILL pass.
In the times of high panic, I do the only thing I can. I sit, stick my head between my knees and breathe deeply and slowly until the moment passes. I calm myself and return to sleep, knowing that everything looks different in the morning.
Stay in touch with your vision – what you are creating and why.
When you act in fear, there’s a big risk of going off track. Keeping my vision in mind has been so important to keeping myself moving forward, and making good decisions.
I like to keep my ‘vision statement’ simple and visible – so I see it regularly. That might be a few lines or an image on my screensaver, pinned to my noticeboard or bookmarking the current page in my planner.
Hang with like-minded people.
If, like me, you’ve taken a risk with a business venture, or are otherwise on a road less travelled – it’s so important to find others on the same path. I’ve done this more and more over the past several months.
I’ve connected with fellow entrepreneurial spirits both socially and professionally – finding people who understand what it’s like to risk big in order to follow a dream. And I’ve discovered the experience of others through magazines, television and radio.
Listen to the words of wisdom that are offered.
You don’t have all the answers, and that’s OK. It’s taken me a while to realise no-one expects me to have all the answers – except maybe myself.
I’m always open to listening to the advice and opinions of those I respect.
Such as Naomi Simson, CEO of Red Balloon:
If you want to create something big – play a big game, make the investment needed. Big dreams take big decisions, and resources.
Or Danielle LaPorte on the relationship between blind faith and confidence.
Or my stepmother, Lorna, who out-of-the-blue said:
Remember your plan, stick to it and be patient.
Take care of yourself.
Under pressure it’s too easy to let go of the small things we do that are really so important to our well-being. I find myself working longer and cutting corners with diet, down-time, sleep and exercise. When I notice the downward spiral I make a conscious effort to better nourish myself in mind, spirit and body. I want to stay strong and energised for myself, my dream and my family.
How about you? I’d love to hear what does and doesn’t work for you when life gets overwhelming…
Related posts:
- Inside Living Savvy: When you should listen to what everyone is saying
- Inside Living Savvy: When do you say ‘yes’ and when do you say ‘no’?
- Inside Living Savvy: What to do when your dreams don’t come fast enough
- Inside Living Savvy: How To Launch A Big Project Without Burning Out – Part 1
- Inside Living Savvy: How To Launch A Big Project Without Burning Out – Part 2
Don’t give up, anything worth while takes time and committment. It took 3 years for my blog to find it’s audience and 10 years for me to land my dream radio job…nothing is an over night success..
Thank you for your wise words Emily Jade. This vision & committment was such an important part of your story when I spoke to you (http://livingsavvy.com.au/getting-to-know-emily-jade). Behind the glamour & success is a dream, hope, overcoming disappointments and much hardwork. I was recently “corresponding” with Juanita Phillips (http://livingsavvy.com.au/do-we-really-need-another-supermum-story) who wondered about the assumptions that get made by people (often other women) who assume that it has been all smooth sailing for her in acheiving what she has done in her career & negate the slog she has put into it.
There is a balance that must be found between managing expectations and staying focused and committed on where you are heading. I do enjoy the thrill of walking this fine line.
Interesting journey you have been on Joe and thanks for sharing it with us. It so resonates with where I have been travelling of recent times with my own dreams. I have been doing quite a bit of overwhelm lately and a very timely email from a friend saying “what’s up” changed all that. A business woman who has been in that place of overwhelm shared with me that this is normal when you step out on a limb and they shared with me how they worked through it. I felt so uplifted and re-energised. So definitely for me being connected to like minded people is absolutely essential to keeping me “afloat”.
Remembering and taking the time to reflect on the initial spark of passion that started me on my dream journey is particularly important for me to draw me out of those times of discouragement and overwhelm.
My golden rule is to keep looking after myself first and let everything else fall into its natural place. I have done a big turn around with this one committing to eating nourishing food, keeping the calorie intake in balance and doing a small amount of exercise each day. It feels to good to be putting myself first even in front of my business demands! Now I have more mental and emotional energy to give to my dream.
I have decided not to let my dream “drive me” so to speak. So long as I remain in the drivers seat and don’t allow the dream to dictate to me how I will live my life, I find everything balances out and all the resources I need flow into my life.
And yes – I do the breathing thing heaps! I also spend time using the Emotional Freedom Techniques which work wonders for my emotional and physical wellbeing.
Chris, it is a fine line that we tread keeping our dreams on the side of aspiration and not crossing over onto the dreaded side of expectation. Stay strong and balanced.
Well done Cat…and you do it all again tomorrow until you come out the other end.
timing, as always, is perfect ….
Looking after myself is the first thing to go (normally) when I go into overwhelm … and, on re-visiting that old friend today as I finished my workout (which I resisted doing as there were sooooo many other things I could be doing this morning) I realised that I needed really good sustenance … so for lunch I went to the health food shop and stocked up on really soulful, nurturing, healthy foods – like sprouted rye bread and beetroot hommus. That was the base of a delicious yet still healthy lunch for me today …
I also resisted the red wine last night in favour of a chamomile tea … and went to bed before 11 … and feel better for it.
And my favourite mantra at the moment … "I don't have to solve it all now" … and I refocus on the most important tasks in front of me *right now*
Oh … and *breathe*