I started my first business over 10 years ago because I believed that I would enjoy working for myself. And I do. But, what I found out very early on was that there was just so much to get my head around, so much to learn and so much to do.
One of the mistakes I made was to decide that what I needed to do was to work longer hours and that would make everything better. It didn’t. All that happened was that I got more and more tired and less and less effective.
Another mistake I made was to believe that I was the only person in this situation – that there must be something wrong with what I was doing, or perhaps with me. That one took a bit of work to realise that this belief was totally wrong.
I also didn’t take enough time to recharge my batteries because I was so busy working in my business that I felt guilty if I didn’t do at least some work over the weekend. And, even though I’d heard this saying before – and indeed repeated it to my clients, I got so busy working in the business that I didn’t allow any time to work on it.
Fortunately I was able to realise what was happening and take actions that would stop the feelings of overwhelm I was experiencing. These strategies worked for me and they’ve worked for my coaching clients, and they’re what I’m passing on to you today.
Now, what you may not realise is that you may actually be contributing to your own overwhelm. Let’s see if you can identify with any of the following.
You’re working really hard in your business, probably harder than you ever have before, and yet you’re making less money than when you had a job! Is that going to make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated? It certainly is. By the way, did you know that JOB also stands for Just Over Broke?
Or, perhaps you’re are doing every single task yourself? You don’t want to let anyone else do it because only you know how it should be done. Or you think you can’t afford to get help – that’s a big mistake which I’ll talk more about in another post. This is called trying to be a Superman or Wonder Woman and you set unrealistic expectations of yourself and what you can achieve in a given time – are you surprised that you then feel overwhelmed?
Another way you could be contributing to your own overwhelm is that you lack focus. Not on purpose but because you simply have so many ideas that you never seem to actually get down and do the work that makes the money! This is known as Bright Shiny Object syndrome as I learned from fellow coach Melanie Benson Strick and it’s really, really common amongst us business owners.
So, are you doing any of these and contributing to your feelings of overwhelm?



