Do you feel stretched, tired and burnt out, no matter how much rest you are able to achieve? Are you experiencing a heavy feeling creeping into your day and it’s often a struggle to summon up the enthusiasm you used to have to take on the many challenges you perceive piling up around you? And are you feeling a bit lost on what exactly is the most important action to take moment by moment to rise out of the feelings of overwhelm?
If you’re ready to tackle these challenges head on and clear out or breakthrough the emotions that are distracting you and blocking your inspiration, then keep reading.
Like many people, you may experience times a feeling of overwhelm and distraction and a general feeling that the outer world is “running” you and generally dominating your life.
It can sometimes feel as if there are too many tabs open in your brain and you keep losing track of what page you’re on and what to prioritise with a constant push to Update! Update! Update!
This can be incredibly frustrating and distracting, not to mention overwhelming, especially when you assume that you need to do it all and that it all needs to be done now.
I know I have experienced this many times in my journey. Without a doubt! Quite frequently I lived in a distraction where it felt as if there was too much going on, too much to do that needed my attention, too many things to organise and prioritise, and too few people to delegate to.
From my mentor, Dr. John Demartini, I learned powerful tools that were tangibly valuable in transforming my distracted mind into one that was more present, poised, centred, strategic and focused. These strategies can be implemented immediately and have the potential to transform your life from scattered and preoccupied to focused, and from trying to do everything to only focusing on the highest-priority tasks.
There are SIX key action points that can help you resolve and dissolve distraction and overwhelm. All you need is some paper and a pen (or digital equivalent) and around 30 minutes of time blocked out so you can focus on the process.
#1 DEFINE THE DISTRACTION
The first step is to get everything out of your head that is occupying your mind and distracting and overwhelming you and write it down. Make this the first of 5 columns. This step can result in some relief as you take away some of the pressure of trying to remember it all and instead get it all down in point form in front of you. It is wise to keep going on this list until you run out of tasks, or actions to write down that are occupying your mind. There is a very important principle here that anything you don't have on paper will have to be stored in the mind, occupying space and time, with some of those things being stored for days, weeks or months and even longer into the future. Instead of being present, you are distracting yourself with guilts of the past or fears of the future.
Writing it all down as a list generally calms the distraction down. You may find you have a lot on your plate, with some of the things feeling urgent to address.
So on to the next column and list.
#2 DUMP
In the second column you’re then going to systematically work through your list and ask yourself, is this truly important or is this something I can dump, forget about and not even put any energy towards it?
You may be able to cross out one or two items for every 35 listed as there may be very little value in completing them, or there is truly nothing you or anyone else can do about them. Dump those thoughts rolling around in your head by putting them down on paper. Let go of them once you recognise how low of a priority, or how futile they are.
#3 DELEGATE
This is quite a fascinating step that involves writing in the third column headed: Who can I delegate this to? In other words, you methodically work through your list and write down the name of the individual(s) to whom you can delegate some of the tasks.
Delegate low priority actions to those more suited and inspired to do them. Give others the opportunity to shine and you the opportunity to be set free. Doing what you love and delegating what others would love, liberates all.
If you find somebody who loves and finds meaning in doing it, you are less likely to have to micromanage it going forwards. You can then release it and get on with what really produces, what really serves, and what is really meaningful to you.
In some cases, you may not yet have an individual to delegate those tasks to, but you may see value in hiring someone so you can delegate those tasks and focus on higher-priority items instead. I myself have hired a cleaner, much against misplaced perceptions of my pride (being able to do it all) and of privilege (what sort of person doesn’t clean up after themselves). What a difference it has made freeing not only my time, but liberating my mind from the distraction of continual underlying stress of knowing cleaning was always waiting to be done and circling thoughts of when am I going to do it.
Some of the items on your list may be actually bigger projects, so go a step further and break them down into smaller daily action steps that can be done on a particular day or delegate them to an individual or yourself.
This step involves doing the same for each individual you intend to delegate tasks to, so you have oversight of what deliverables are due each day for the next however many days and by whom.
The final part of this third step is to create a daily delegation form – what needs to be done by others, and by what time and date.
Once you realise you have been carrying around stuff that really needs to be handed over to others who can do things that you may not be equipped or inspired to do, a huge load will come off your back. If it’s not a priority for you, you will avoid doing it and it becomes baggage to carry around, distracting you from doing what you love.
If you don't have some place to put the things in your mind down and to be able to sort through it all, it stays in your head and results in scattered distraction.
So put them down on the date, exactly who to delegate it to and the day it was to be done. Break it down into small bites. If you don't have anyone to delegate to as yet, then you can link these tasks to your highest values - but thats for another post :)
So now you have dumped, delegated, the next one is to do. What are you going to do?
#4 DO
This next step is to write or type out in column four whatever is truly highest in priority and intended to be done to completion by you.
In this fourth step it is wise to create a daily to do form – for placing those tasks that need to be done only by you, and by what time and date
.
With this it is critical to set reasonable and realistic timelines that are not overwhelming, with the focus is on setting achievable timeframes that help you build momentum and confidence.
Your mind significantly calms and becomes more focused at the end of this step.
Not only have you extracted everything from your mind that was distracting you and creating feelings of overwhelm, but you also likely have more clarity, certainty and focus for the month in advance.
#5 DATE
Now that you’ve organised what you are to “dump”, “delegate” and “do”, you can begin assigning a reasonable date to each of them. For example, grouping all tasks that need to be done by Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and so on, together with the individual (you or other) who will be completing that task.
Completing this step takes a huge burden off your mind particularly when you are carrying the weight of many tasks, obligations and expectations. When you hand some of them over to specialists who are either more equipped or more intrinsically inspired to complete them than you, it frees up time and energy for those tasks that are high priority for you.
Anything that's not put into appropriate time and date will be stored in the mind and create distraction leading to feelings of overwhelm. These 5 steps are a great distraction resolution process.
#6 DEMARTINI METHOD
Once you have looked at each item that needed to be done or delegated, and assigned dates to each of them, you may discover sometimes other emotions that remain that distract due to judgments of yourself or others.
Sometimes the journey to overcoming distraction and becoming more focused included a sixth step that went beyond PRACTICAL tasks to dump, delegate, do, and date, one that involved addressing dissolving any related EMOTIONAL charges.
Anything that you have an imbalanced perception on: infatuation, where you perceive more positives than negatives; or resentment, where you perceive more negatives than positives, will likely distract you and run you.
If you don’t address your emotional imbalances and let things accumulate, it builds and results in subconsciously stored distractions. If you don't sort through them and itemise them out and take them one at a time and methodically dissolve them away, they can run your life - and anything that reminds you of those experiences in the past which are stored in your subconscious can be triggered and create an anxiety response. If you're having anxiety, this response will take your attention and occupy space and time in your mind, distracting you and running your life.
So when making a list of distractions, it is wise to not only look at items to dump, delegate, do and date, but also emotional charges that are distracting you. If you don't balance out those lopsided perceptions, they're going to keep occupying your mind. Creating overwhelm.
In summary, to resolve distraction and overwhelm,
The Practical:
Define the distractions
Dump
Delegate
Do
Date
The Emotional:
Demartini Method on unresolved emotional baggage occupying space and time in your mind and distracting you
If you’d love to learn how to do this then please reach out and I’ll show you how to work through the 6 steps, while using the Demartini Method to take any emotional distractions that divert your attention, dissolving them and liberating your mind to regain clarity of focus, strategy and purpose.
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