How Do You Feel Right Now?

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling a little overwhelmed, stressed and anxious. I had a day packed with meetings and phone calls and they were all taking longer than I had booked into my schedule. Things I wanted to get done towards the end of the day were slipping off the schedule and the additional questions for help coming my way were just not going to get done. In fact, I'm starting to feel a little anxious just writing and thinking about this.

At one point my wife asked me if there was anything she could help with to take some stuff off my plate and I said, " No. I'm fine. I'll figure it out. It's not like I'm saving lives or anything."

After I said that, the overwhelm started to subside a little. It's true, isn't it? The majority of us are not saving lives yet we put so much pressure on ourselves that everything feels like it's life or death.

What is overwhelm, stress and anxiety? They're just feelings, right?

When do I feel overwhelmed, stressed or anxious? If I start thinking about what happened when I started to write this post, all it takes is for me to shift my focus to a time when I was overwhelmed, stressed or anxious. If I put myself back in that specific time and think about what I was doing, I was focusing on the stuff I couldn't do, things that were out of my control or people I couldn't help.

That means that the way I feel is just a matter of what I focus on.

As a high achiever, I put a lot of pressure on myself to accomplish things and make sure I do them well. I'm always looking to be better and I set my goals high. Often I don't even achieve my goals because I set them so high and it becomes a little demoralizing. In order to get past this feeling all I need to do is shift my focus back to what I have accomplished and the people I have helped. Or perhaps the people who are there for me and what to help me. Or perhaps the sun that is shinning or the rain that is helping the flowers grow.

The point is that focus is everything. You can't have a positive attitude focusing on the negative shit.

And nobody wants to hang out with negative people.