Overwhelm is just a Symptom

For more than a few years, I’ve been a slave to email. I was very aware of it and sought help. I got some relief, but email still felt like it was cracking its whip on me.

By the way, if you’ve got the email thing down, I don’t want to hear about all the different strategies I can use to reduce email. I've tried them. Many of them worked.

But in the end, email still took over a good part of each day.

The reason why structures don’t always get you out of overwhelm is because it’s not email (or insert any topic that you feel overwhelmed about) that is the problem. It’s the way you relate to the email that is the problem.

In my case, it was an addiction to making sure I stayed on top of it so it wouldn’t pile up. I didn’t want anything important to fall through the cracks. I didn’t want to be seen as negligent if I didn’t answer right away. There were probably other nasty beliefs I was throwing into the mix, too.

Those beliefs, not the emails, were keeping me from my most important projects and goals.

Am I cured? Not totally. Not yet.

But as I sat in a room full of my supportive peers working through this inner conflict, I felt a huge release. I did the ugly cry and couldn’t stop. I had no idea the pain of email overwhelm was so deep.

Instead of feeling the pressure of responding to emails, I’m choosing to work on my projects and goals instead. The more attention I give to the things I REALLY want to be doing, the easier it’s been to change my relationship to email.

I’ve been here before, back in my early thirties. Substitute to-do lists for email. My to-do lists damn near gave me a nervous breakdown back then. I had a made-up idea in my head that if I got my to-do list done, I’d be more successful. Kicking that habit opened me up to reaching my first six-figure year … and doing it with extreme ease.

I’m excited to experience more peace and profits as a result of my new-found ease around email. It no longer owns me.

I’m the boss. I get to choose what gets my attention. I’m making new choices.

What about you? Where do you feel overwhelm and try to manage the circumstance versus exploring your beliefs?