Overwhelm has unexpected costs. When the weight of business lands heavily on your shoulders, it feels like you’re drowning in an ocean of tasks, facing a relentless tide of responsibilities, and the growing dread of tomorrow's daunting agenda never eases. Sleep can suffer. Focus can become scattered. Relationships with your team can become strained. Overwhelm becomes an anchor pulling leaders into the abyss of relentless days with little freedom to savor family time, self-care, celebration, or even some much-needed head space to imagine your way out of the chaos.
The root of overwhelm often lies in a disconnect from
purpose, scattered priorities, and a lack of structured guidance. By
recognizing and addressing these issues, leaders can find their way back to
clarity.
It’s possible that purpose-driven business owners have a distinct advantage over traditional business owners when it comes to overcoming overwhelm. The 4Rs to Overcome Overwhelm below provides the leverage you need as a conscious leader to conquer overwhelm and reenergize your business.
Every successful purpose-driven
business starts with a clear purpose…but in the midst of the day-to-day race to
get everything done, it sometimes gets lost in the chaos of “too many tasks,
too little time.”
When things get overwhelming like this, reconnecting to your
purpose can reactivate your passion, reawaken your creativity, and revive your sense
of connection with your customers. You
began your business with purpose. Let it remind you again about your Why. Reconnecting
to your purpose will point you once again toward your North Star to guide you
through the cluttered thinking that has you trapped in the rut.
In the constant race to get
things done, it’s easy to fall into the trap that everything is equally
important. Often, we’ll go for the easy thing just to feel like we got something
done today. Yet, the truth is, not every task deserves your immediate
attention. One of the most important skills to overcome overwhelm is to ruthlessly
prioritize your actions each day.
Let me break this down into the two components of this strategy.
Prioritizing begins with naming all the things you’re holding in your head that
need to get done. Write it all down. Put down everything you think you need to
get done so you can clear your head and see it all there on the page. You can
start big or small, whichever level of scale works best for you.
For example, sometimes I’m overwhelmed by all the projects
going on in our company, so I start bigger and list them all out as my first
step. My list would include naming the current projects going with our clients
(sometimes one client has multiple projects, too), courses we are developing, our
current marketing campaign, team development, social media engagement, developing
content (blogs like this!), and so on. Just making that list helps clear your
head.
Now, take it to the next level of detail. Every project has
a list of immediate tasks that need to get done. Write those down. Note the qualifier,
immediate. That means there is a deadline today or a critical dependency
riding on that task. Here’s where you have
to become ruthless.
What absolutely has to get done in the next day or two, or
perhaps this week (depending on your project and business)? Rank them in order
of importance. Most people answer that question with “But, they’re ALL
important!” The truth is…if everything is important, nothing is important. You have
to get ruthless with yourself. If you could only work on one of these projects
today to ensure your purpose is moving forward….which would you choose?
Tackle the tasks on that one first. Then, go to your second
project and tackle those immediate tasks, and so on. This is your list of top
priorities.
I just described a powerful, yet fairly standard approach to
prioritizing. But there’s one more step that purpose-driven leaders take that
others rarely do. That leads us to the third R….
Relate every chore, even the mundane ones,
back to your purpose. Ask yourself, “How
does this task connect to our manifesting our purpose right now?”
That email, how does it enable us to fulfill our purpose? It
creates a connection with our customer, so they felt seen, heard, and
appreciated. They know we care.
That shipping label, how does it enable us to fulfill our
purpose? It gets the product to our customer, so they get the benefit of using
ecofriendly cleaners in their home, their kids are healthier, they are
healthier, and the earth is healthier.
Answer that question for every action you take and notice
how the weight of overwhelm begins to lighten as you remember the powerful
meaning of every action you take.
No leader is an island. Be it a trust colleague, mentor,
business coach, or a thought partners like the Genius Goals team, having
someone who's navigated the turbulent waters of business can be invaluable to
help you lift the weight of overwhelm. Just like your customers, you need to
feel supported, seen, and heard. Find your tribe. Line up with guides who can
help you see what you’re missing and talk through your ideas to firm them into
real steps forward….without adding more overwhelm.
From chaos to clarity, the path is seldom straightforward.
It twists and turns, with highs and lows. Recognize when overwhelm is creeping
in. Take action. Work the 4Rs. By reconnecting with your purpose, ruthlessly
focusing your priorities, and reaching forward into strategic guidance, you can
turn the tide. Overwhelm will lose its grip and be replaced by rekindled
passion and a clear path forward.
