Overwhelmed and Always Busy? You’ve Outgrown Hard and Busy

How many times this week have you said “I’m so busy”? Or “this is hard,” or “I’m so tired”? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’ve probably built real success by getting things done through effort, pushing through and carrying more than your share, and busy became how you proved you were doing enough.

Those words cost you. Every time you say them, you reinforce that it is hard and it is a struggle, and that’s exactly what you don’t want standing between you and the big project you’re working on, the book, the launch, the offer. (Mine is my book, and I wrote about that in What’s Still Sitting on the Shelf?)

Hard, busy and tired are old programs, and every time you repeat them, you run them again.

The morning I could have called it hard

I’m building an in-person retreat space where I’ll host entrepreneurs and leaders. We wanted a specialized product used in the build, so my spouse and I procured it ourselves, and recently it came in late and held up another trade. Before I went live on Receptive Radio™ that day, I was on the phone with three different people getting it back on track, with other work waiting and a show to prepare for.

I could have stopped everything and had a little fit. I could have said why am I so busy, why is this taking so long, and let it throw me out of alignment for the whole day. What I did was make the three calls, bring the backup plan forward and go live at 12:30 on time. I wasn’t having a panic attack. Here’s what made me so curious… why wasn’t I?

Because I practice presence. I practice being relaxed, and I practice being on schedule.

Presence is something you train

I learned what intensity is in public practice accounting, where I worked through twenty tax seasons in a row. I learned what practice is in the barn. I come from a horse racing family, and a horse can’t get into the winner’s circle unless it gets into the race, and it doesn’t get into the race unless it trains every day.

Presence works the same way. I’ve kept a daily practice for thirty years, and I guide Life Force Activation™ practices three times a week, so when a morning goes sideways, presence is already in my body where I can reach it. Presence is a physical and embodied mindset, and the way you practice is the way you lead.

If you want to start training it yourself, my Life Force Starter Kit gives you three of my greatest hits from my live practice studio: Grounded Power, Energize Your Day, and Receive & Recharge. Two are 30 minutes and one is 15, and Grounded Power sets your energy so your body leads and your mind follows.

When you’re overwhelmed, change the words first

You can start noticing this today. Say “I’m tired” out loud and notice how you feel. Then say “I love all this action that’s moving my business forward” and notice how you feel. When that delivery ran late, I caught myself saying, wow, things are moving, let’s keep this moving along, this is exciting, and that choice of words kept me in alignment for the rest of the day.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you probably have a lot of good things moving that you’d like to work on and move forward. What it’s asking for is a decision about which ones go in which order, and what you focus on first. Coping mechanisms take up the room your vision needs, and hard, busy and tired are coping mechanisms too. They cost you your focus and they slow you down, sometimes enough to halt a whole project.

This is the work I do. I help you notice where you’re creating the struggle you don’t want, so the effort that built your success stops costing you your focus, and you can make more money, have more freedom and actually enjoy what you’ve built.

Your questions about feeling overwhelmed and busy

Why do I feel busy all the time?

Busy usually means you have a lot of good things moving, and at some point busy became how you proved you were doing enough. Every time you call it busy, you reinforce that it’s hard and a struggle, so start by noticing how often you say it.

How do I stop feeling overwhelmed in my business?

Overwhelm is asking you for a decision about which things go in which order, and what you focus on first. Then practice presence every day, so when a morning goes sideways you respond with awareness instead of reacting.

What is presence, and how do I practice it?

Presence is a physical and embodied mindset. You build it the way a horse trains to get into the race, every day, with a practice you actually do, like the three audio practices in the Life Force Starter Kit.

What’s one thing moving in your business right now that you’ve been calling hard or busy? Tell me in the comments.

And start with the practice. The Life Force Starter Kit is three audio practices you can use before your next busy morning.