This is a collaboration blog by Erika Del Sordo and Meredith Kimmel, ACC. This blog can also be found at www.TodaysTalkwithErika.com.
Meredith and I are like the poster children for Overwhelm and Energy Management. We’re not immune to it. We get overwhelmed just like the nearly eight billion people in the world. But I believe I can speak for both of us when I say, we don’t stay in that place. We both suck it up and move onward. We scoot into the mindset of ‘where will my energy placement work best for me?’ And we shift.
In the Weeds
It’s certainly easy to get to that dreaded place though. I believe the restaurant term for it is “in the weeds.” When you feel like you’re “in the weeds” you panic, right? You may not see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. But again, Meredith and I are not immune to it. What we are is resilient. How do we do it? We’ve already written a blog about being resilient. That’s not what this is about. This is about how we pull ourselves out of the weeds of overwhelm and shift into better energy management. As always, we write from personal experience.
Energy Management refers to your physical and mental endurance. Without these two things you simply cannot get much done. Improper energy management leads to overwhelm, which could potentially turn into burnout. It is reversible, but only if you reset your mind and then your tasks at hand. Those tasks may be work related, they may be family related, they may be personal emotions, but they all must work like clockwork in order to balance your energy and your time.
Energy Management and Bringing Your A-Game
Meredith and I texted each other earlier and I told her that I have a new position at the radio station. Considering I have approximately eight jobs, Meredith was surprised that I took on more! (As are most people.) But it wasn’t so much that I took on more, I mainly shifted my midday responsibilities to mornings reporting news, weather, and traffic on five stations. This in turn has tossed my personal training clients into new timeslots. Not a big deal, I can work through it, but I do need a new energy management plan.
My goal is to provide my clients and listeners my absolute 100% Erika A-Game. I have had a lifetime of lessons. I know when I have to kick my mindset into overdrive and focus on my years of training and education. I aim to provide my clients 100% of me at all times. That takes stamina!
Luckily, a little less than a year ago, I adopted a dog. You see, sometimes we forget to get back to nature. We forget that a good mindset shift can mean a walk in the park, a stroll at the lake, a barefoot walk in the grass letting the Universe absorb our worries bringing us organic energy that is so healthy for our soul that you begin to look and feel better. These are the moments that matter. And I wouldn’t be able to share that with you unless I hadn’t experienced running barefoot across my property after a dog that rarely listens.
Personal Experiences with Overwhelm
Remember when I told you Meredith and I work on personal experience? How else would we be able to tell you about how to overcome Overwhelm and work on Energy Management? And while Meredith does come from a place of personal experience, she also provides a professional life transformation view on these topics with much more in depth training as a certified coach. So, I pass the torch to Meredith now as I conserve my energy before, I start the next project. =)
Thank you, Erika. I’m glad you are conserving energy before your next project!
It is quite easy for me to slip into overwhelm. In fact, Erika and I wrote a blog post about finding balance. I talked about how I was so out of balance I was getting burned out. I was devoting every waking minute to my business and neglecting everything else. When I shifted energy into other areas of my life, and less into my business, my business started to boom, and I signed a bunch of new clients!!
It seems counterintuitive, but it actually works. Spreading yourself too thin, or taking on too much, causes overwhelm which may lead to burnout. Think of the saying, “jack of all trades, master of nothing.” You spread yourself too thin, you may get some results, but you won’t be bringing your A-Game.
Dealing with Overwhelm and Energy Management
Over the past year, 90% of my clients start the first session saying to me that they are overwhelmed and looking for balance in their lives. When I hear this in our session, a mental picture comes into my head, not unlike the image above.
They ask me if I have any tips or tools that can help them quickly, like yesterday, or three weeks ago. It doesn’t work like that. As Erika stated above, there needs to be a shift in mindset. There needs to be energy management.
Some days I wake up and just don’t want to do anything. On days like that I know things need to get done, but I listen to and honor my body. I give myself a break by deciding what are the absolute “must do” items for the day, and I do them. I determine what can be postponed to the next day, and I leave those for the next day. This way, I’m bringing my A-Game to the tasks that need to be done and letting those that can linger wait until I’m able to give them my A-Game, and I conserve my energy.
Tips for Dealing with Overwhelm and Energy Management
As I said above, there are no quick fix tips for dealing with overwhelm and managing energy. However, this is what I have found to be helpful for myself and my clients:
- Listen to what your body is telling you. Don’t overdo it. Get plenty of sleep.
- Use your calendar. Your Gmail account has a calendar. Use it, and schedule everything you do including eating dinner.
- Make To-Do lists. An annual one, a weekly one, and a daily one. Take stock of your lists and see if you are expecting yourself to do too much in a single day.
- Have a lofty vision or intention that gives you purpose. This will keep you motivated.
- Remove projects from your plate that you no longer want to do. It’s okay to say no to something. By doing this you won’t be expending energy thinking “when will I get to this?”
Staying in balance and managing your energy will help you avoid overwhelm and burnout. Embrace this mindset. These are skills that need to be developed and it won’t happen overnight. I even fall back into old patterns of behavior from time to time. Remember we are only human.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and would like support, schedule a call with either Erika or myself and we would be more than happy to support you.
