No matter what's holding you back. No matter how much resistance you feel, you can burst through it.
I know it seems impossible to beat the procrastination, resistance, and all of the overwhelm you're feeling right now, but there is a way out.
It involves cutting through some of the beliefs holding you back, so you can finally crush it in life and business.
I'm sharing my own experience, and some of the mindset shifts and tricks I use when I feel in deep shit. Hopefully, some of these shifts will help you, too.
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1. Find the trigger to your resistance
Okay, you're procrastinating. You feel stuck.
Everything feels yucky, and you're in a haze. It's a dreadful feeling, right?
You don't feel good in your own skin, you're not moving forward, and you feel like a massive imposter.
You easily get angry at other people and start blaming them whenever something goes wrong.
Does this sound familiar? (at least it does to me… ew I hate feeling like this).
And if you're an over-thinker like me, it's definitely not helping the situation in any way.
But over-thinker or not, what I have learned about getting rid of these feelings is to ask myself: WHY?
Literally ask yourself: Why am I feeling this way?
And ask it out loud. Even better, ask yourself this question by writing it down on a piece of paper. Getting down your thoughts and feelings on paper will help get them out of your head.
Turn off your phone, remove all disturbances, and get it out there. At the end of this session with yourself, you will probably conclude:
I feel overwhelmed. I don't have clarity. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid I won't be able to do it.
All of these feelings are linked to fear of failure. Any yucky feelings are typically linked to fear or shame or a combination of those.
The truth is, we're afraid we aren't good enough. We're afraid we won't be loved if we fuck up. We're afraid we will fail. We're afraid because we have failed in the past, so we won't try again.
But you know what, you ARE good enough. And this exercise is going to help you show that to yourself.
2. Normalize the resistance you feel
Your fear of failure is paralyzing you, and the inaction it's causing is making you feel even more overwhelmed. You freeze and can't seem to move anywhere… quite literally sometimes.
And that's why you need to do the previous exercise on paper. Writing it out will get your body in the right action flow and get you out of that inaction.
If you don't know why you're feeling stuck and frozen, you also won't know how to unfreeze.
It's about finding the root cause of that fear you're feeling, so you can unfreeze and get back into action.
There's this law of motion saying: ‘an object in motion stays in motion,' and I believe this to be true for your actions, too.
I get it seems overwhelming to even get to this point, especially when you're feeling overwhelmed. But the best thing you can do is to normalize your feelings.
Say this out loud: the resistance I feel is normal. I accept this feeling. I normalize I feel like this.
That resistance you feel is actually key to why some people are wildly successful while others are averagely successful. Don't be ashamed about it. Instead, grab your resistance buddy by the hand and push through anyway.
3. Choose to do things ‘good enough'
‘Be afraid and do it anyway.' ‘Poop your pants and go for it.' ‘Let's fucking do it.' ‘Just do it.'
You have maybe heard some of these quotes before. Common for all of them is this: when you're faced with resistance and hit the wall of paralysis, you have A CHOICE.
A: You can stay paralyzed, stay frozen and not take any action, or
B: You can choose to fight with the resistance and lean into it.
The most crucial part is that you have a choice, and that choice is yours.
I don't mean you have to fight against the resistance, but uncover what is causing all of the overwhelm and then start running with it.
Being able to run with it is what separates successful from unsuccessful people. It's what separates the good from the great.
It should be no surprise that I hope you went with option B. If you did, let me tell you what's next.
Start by looking at doing things ‘good enough', and let go of that perfectionist inside of you.
Usually, I joke about how I'm a recovering perfectionist, but I'm still stuck in old patterns for certain parts of my life. It mainly concerns things I'm not amazing at, and think I should be perfect at.
And there you have it. ****Should and perfect are two huge warning signs that you're procrastinating out of fear of failure because you're a big f*cking perfectionist.
For all the things you're postponing, it's time to focus on what's ‘good enough'. Your own ‘good enough'.
Focus on executing ‘good enough' and use the 80/20 rule. 80% ‘good enough' is all you need. And to get to this point, it all starts with you deciding to take action.
4. Put decisions over indecisions
Making decisions is one of the biggest bottlenecks for ourselves whenever we're feeling paralyzed. We let them pile up, one by one because we're afraid of making the wrong decision.
But you know what a wrong decision is? Not making a decision.
Because what separates good decisions from bad decisions is what happens afterward.
No decision will not teach you anything and give you overwhelm, while A DECISION can lead you to a win or learning about what to adjust.
Remember, no matter how overwhelmed you're feeling, no decision will get you nowhere, while a decision will get you somewhere.
5. Treat projects as experiments
Not so long ago, I was feeling overwhelmed in my organization. I didn't have an overview of upcoming projects, and the ones we were working on were a mess in my head.
Maybe you're also interested in this: 6 Key Mindset Shifts to Hit 10k Months
Instead of being annoyed, I decided to create a placeholder for this project dashboard until I had time to make the real one. But now, 2 months later, I'm still using the placeholder dashboard. Everything's in one spot, and it took me almost no time to make it.
I decided to experiment with it, which massively helped me shift my mindset. By treating it as an experiment, there wasn't too much at stake, and nothing was set in stone.
This is a great way to move past that resistance you're feeling or fear of failure. Treat the projects holding you back as experiments, and remember that some things will have to be ‘good enough'.
Make a dashboard of projects. Some things will have to be ‘good enough'.
I know there are unicorns in the world that are good at everything, but I'm not one of them. I'm still struggling with resistance sometimes.
But it's like my coach once told me: ‘You can have everything you want, just not everything at the same time.' This is still a good reminder whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed and stuck.
On that note, I genuinely believe you can achieve everything you want in time if you:
- Focus on doing it ‘good enough'
- Place decisions over indecisions
- Treat more things like experiments in your business and life
- Take action
Ultimately, you're the boss of your destiny and your life. You determine the course. Are you ready to claim ownership and step out of overwhelm?
Let's do it. Let's make the jump!
Watch this episode on YouTube or listen via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 72 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
If you happen to feel resistance towards putting yourself out there as you build your personal brand, I have created a free video training that will help you build camera confidence, captivate your audience, and create awesome videos.
In the training; Spot On Stories, I will share the 3-step formula for creating amazing stories.
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