I had to take my own advice about how to not feel overwhelmed in my own profession this week.
I had to get back to basics.
When I notice that I feel too busy to make things better for myself in my own job, I know I need to pay attention.
Keeping a private practice running is no joke. I can fall into the trap of working too much, thinking too much, and putting everything ahead of what's in my own best interest.
I can lose track of what's most important to me. It's no big deal. I try to notice with curiosity and decide what my next steps are.
As I plan for the week ahead, I'm going to attempt to cut out things that feel like busywork. My brain often tells me I'm too busy to even make a plan. Ever feel that way? It's like I'm peddling away on my bicycle but feel in too much of a rush or too busy peddling to stop for directions or even slow down to accept a ride from a passing race car. Both things would get me to my destination faster but I've lost all perspective.
I'm going to aim my focus to what will actually move the needle towards my goals this week. I will not do this perfectly. I will, in fact, very likely screw it up.
This is normal.
Keeping Perspective in Your Profession to Manage Overwhelm
For some reason this reminded me of a story a client shared with me about how every Friday she has to fill in a survey that goes to her boss. She is asked to rate her mood for the week, update her progress on goals, share what she's working on etc.
She shared that she knows her boss never even reads this survey. She knows this because she gets an update each time the survey gets opened. The last time it was opened by someone other than her was the first month the company started using it. Two years ago. But she fills this thing out because it has become almost like a game. It gives her a percentage like 100% of updates completed, 100% completed on time. If she misses a week, it will show in her percentage. It also compares her score with the overall company score. She shared with me recently that one Saturday she woke up in a cold sweat at 3 am because she realized she hadn’t filled out her weekly survey. This thing that nobody else had looked at in nearly 2 years was going to be late. Her perfect 100% streak after 2 years was over. I could see, as she was sharing this with me that something was clicking in for her. Just saying how much this bothered her out loud was giving her a little perspective. All she could say was "how dumb", "how dumb" over and over. Of course, it wasn't dumb. It was perfectly normal for her to want to please her boss. The survey was working exactly the way it was intended to work. It was designed to be like a game. It was designed to make a comparison between her "best" and the "best" of her peers. I guess to motivate her to keep filling it out? Anyhow, she kind of "came to" in a way.
She realized how much impact this thing had had on her. Waking up from an anxiety dream over something that felt like a really big deal but wasn't.
Something kind of clicked in.
We're Not Robots
It turned out that missing that one "deadline" was the beginning of her giving herself permission to never worry about filling it out late again.
This might seem like a really small thing. But the awareness of her tendency to strive for perfection turned out to be pretty helpful. She described it as her first step in becoming super aware of how afraid she was to disappoint others at work. Even in the smallest of ways that didn't always make sense.
I guess my point here is that she is a person. She's not a character in a video game. This is a good reminder for me too.
Lots of folks share with me that they feel too busy and overwhelmed by their job to stop and make things better.
If this is you, maybe this is your sign.
Remember what matters to you. Focus on what's important. Let yourself do it imperfectly.
Also, please rest.
Even when there's sill work to be done.
Thanks for being here.
As always, I'm cheering you on.
Christine
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