Get Out of Your Overwhelm!

Is this you? You are a mother to two children, a wife trying to find some quiet time with your husband, fitting in an exercise program, working 7 days a week as a designer, feeling lots of stress, and feeling guilty because you think you should be able to handle everything in your life better.

Nika Stewart, a Designer's Success Coach, writes

I know the feeling too well. I wish I could say that I don't, but I am prone to feeling overwhelmed. As designers and business owners, with so many external and internal factors to deal with - the economy, the housing market, our families, our own homes, the demands of our clients, backordered and discontinued fabrics...(oh my gosh, I am feeling anxious just typing this list!), we are bound to feel overwhelmed and stressed sometimes.

The experts say when you are feeling stressed, you should take a break, get a massage, or take a bubble bath. But, who has the time.

Stewart writes, "When I am too stressed and too busy to take even a little time for myself, that is when it is absolutely critical to do so!"

If you are feeling the stress, she recommends an Intention Break

• Step Away - you can NOT stop the ongoing overwhelm if you do not physically step out of the situation.
• Reflect on your goals - remember your priorities, think about your dreams. Write your intentions down, and keep this paper with you always. Post it where you can see them often.
  
• Go back to your regularly scheduled life - If you are continuously reminded of your business intention (reading it when you wake up, glancing at it from time to time as you work, saying it to yourself over lunch), you will make choices on a daily basis that bring you closer and closer to your goal - and further and further away from overwhelm.

I wrote down some of my goals for business and posted them on the kitchen cabinet. I see them all the time. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I remember one ofmy goals is to retire at 60. Retiring for me might mean working only two or three days a week. I don't know how yet, but thoughts of how to achieve the goal come to me while I shower or drive to the store and I make choices during every day that bring the goal nearer. I let go and let my subconscious find answers.

BTW, Stewart had an online seminar in which she discussed "how I turned my struggling 7-day workweek into a thriving, successful design business (where I work only 4 days a week, make lots more money, and enjoy my life more than ever!)." Maybe, she will schedule another or there may be slides available of her talk.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery