It happens to all of us and the best of us.
You suddenly realise that you feel totally and utterly stuck.
There’s a simple, fast solution that I use every time to get “unstuck” and feel like I’m moving again.
Even if you can’t see a way out right now.
Trust me, this works.
You’re going to need a banana and a pen.
“Mike, I’m sorry to text you, but I feel totally stuck. I don’t know what to do.
I’ve had clients leave me, my business partner is being difficult and I’m worried about the future of my business.
I feel like I’ve got 100 things going on and I’m struggling to keep them all in the air.
What should I do?”
I get this text about once a week from a client, customer or student.
That feeling that you’re both overwhelmed with a ton of tasks.
And, somehow, that you have no idea what to do first.
It’s an awful paradox between freezing and fighting and flying all at once.
So what’s the solution?
Did you know that your brain is a FANTASTIC recorder.
As in, it records stuff, experiences, thoughts etc. really really well.
The problem is that it records them too well.
In my experience, when people come to me with a list of overwhelming problems, I get them to list out everything that’s on their mind.
Just get it all out in the open.
I’ll write it down for them, and every few items, I’ll repeat back what they’ve got.
What happens makes me smile every single time.
After listing out 5-10 things that are “life ending, apocalyptic, end of the world, overwhelming and drowning them” bad, they run out of things on their mind.
Lots of the time, they get three things out.
Sometimes just one.
And after I repeat back their list (even a short list), they go “huh. I guess that’s all it was.”
If they do have a longer list, they’ll usually say “well, I don’t really care about items 2 to 10. Just #1.”
And again, they have a realisation of “oh. Is that it?”
You see, the human brain is really REALLY good at replaying things over and over.
It’s how we learn, after all.
But we’re terrible at telling the difference between REAL (i.e. what’s actually happening right now) and POTENTIAL (i.e. it could happen, but hasn’t happened yet).
It’s called worrying.
And yes, most of the time, when you’re overwhelmed, it’s because you need to get this list out.
Grab your banana, get a pen (preferably ball point), and write out everything you’re worried about on the banana.
Yes, you are reading that correctly.
Write your list on the banana skin – the peel.
You’ve only got limited space, so be wise with it.
And when you’re done, eat the banana. Because things always seem worse when you’re hungry.
When you’ve done that, come back to this email.
Done it yet?
I’ll wait.
Good.
Doesn’t writing on bananas feel really satisfying? I wish all paper felt like that.
Every time you’re feeling overwhelmed, do this. I do.