Take Back Control of Your Life
Hi! My name is Coach Jimmy and I am coming to you live from Dallas, Texas and today we are talking about the bugaboo word, the “O” word. No, not that “O” word. Take your mind out of the gutter. We are talking about overwhelmed and as I mentor people to get the best results in their life, in their business, in their relationships, in their lifestyle, and with their health and fitness, it’s a word I hear very frequently.
“Jimmy, I want to do this. Jimmy, I have these goals. Jimmy, I want to create this business. I want to create this product. Jimmy, I want to get in shape. I want more energy. I want to be better for my family. I just feel so overwhelmed.”
I feel like that and motivation are two keywords in our society right now. I need motivation and I feel overwhelmed, but I really feel like there are these crutches that people can hide behind. They’re the reason for not taking action. It’s their reason for not following through with something because they can hide behind lack of motivation or feeling overwhelmed and just chalk it up it’s almost like saying, “I have a sprained ankle. I can’t run because I have a sprained ankle. I can’t get results because I feel so overwhelmed,” and I get it.
It’s really easy when you are looking at a big goal. It’s like standing at a base of a mountain and looking at the mountain and going, “Holy cow, I don’t know how I would ever get up there. I don’t know how I would ever make that happen.”
Before getting into business almost 9 years ago, I was a 2 time college dropout, drowning in about $60,000 of debt with multiple maxed out credit cards, and on top of that, I was a hundred pounds overweight and had to move back in with my parents in my early 20s. So I understand overwhelmed.
Take that just as itself. All that debt staring at me, collections agencies calling all the time, looking at an obese human being in the mirror, not having energy, I felt overwhelmed.
I wanted to change my life. I didn’t respect the person I saw in the mirror and there was very little about myself that I liked and if I looked at it all at once and said, “Hey, I am going to change. I want to be this fit guy with a lot of energy, running a seven figure business…” All the things that I am now it will be super easy to go, “Well, I don’t know where to start so I feel overwhelmed,” and that’s really what I feel like overwhelmed is.
Being ‘Overwhelmed’ is a Choice
Because I am just…I am going to be a good enough friend to you to let you know one thing, being overwhelmed is a choice. You may say, “Jimmy, but you don’t know my situation. I have an abusive marriage or I have five kids or I am working three jobs or I am going to school,” or all of those things at once and I get it. I get it.
I am not saying that your life isn’t chaotic right now.
I am not saying you’re not super busy.
I am not saying you don’t have a lot going on, but you know what? Everybody does.
Everybody has their version of a lot going on and being overwhelmed is still a choice. It’s looking at a bunch of things and saying I don’t know where to start. I really feel like that’s what you are saying when you say, “I feel overwhelmed.” You just don’t know where to start and there is good news in that because we can create a system. We can lay things out and give you a system of things.
So the very first thing I want you to do while feeling overwhelmed is to take a piece of paper, take a note book, and just start writing down all the things you feel like you have to do right now. That overwhelmed list. Start writing it down because until we get specific and realize what these things are, again, it’s just a cop out. It’s a way just to go, “La la la la la la la,” that’s the equivalent of feeling overwhelmed instead of making a game plan.
Make a To-Do List
I am going to tell you as you start writing things out, then you are going to look back over that list and you are going to identify there are certain things on that list that if you attack those first, they would domino and knock some of the other things out.
I am going to ask you to really identify what are the three things on that list that are going to move the needle most towards that goal, towards that thing you say you want to do, but you haven’t until this point done because you keep hiding behind overwhelmed. You keep using overwhelmed as a choice not to take any baby steps at all. Because you become paralyzed in overwhelmed. You are hiding in overwhelmed and so therefore it’s super easy not to take any steps.
Overwhelmed just saying, “I don’t have control over my life.” Overwhelmed is saying, “I am always playing defense. I am at the whim of everybody else,” and you are worth more than that.
It’s like the sprained ankle. You’re like, “Well, I can’t walk.” It’s like the person that tells me, “I have a sprained ankle so I can’t work out.” Last time I checked, you can do bicep curls with a sprained ankle. You can do shoulder presses. You can do chest press. It’s the same thing in your life with your goals.
You may have things you don’t have any control over. You may have some things outside that you feel are overwhelming you, but if you out down this list and you can identify two to three things that you have control over and you can take steps.
So that’s what I need you to do first, is identify those three things and then…so what I used to do is write my to do list for the day and it literally would be a page long. It had like twenty five things on there and I would end everyday feeling really defeated because no matter if I clicked off a few at the top, I ended the day feeling like a failure because there were more things that didn’t get done than did get done.
Narrow Your Focus to Smaller Tasks
So I had to change that. I had to not make the twenty five list to do list, twenty five things to do list anymore. I literally had to sit down, maybe I made that list, and then I picked what three things can I do today to move me closer? Then that big long list got torn up and I focused on those three things, so that I can get myself a win. So I could create some momentum.
It’s funny, when you create momentum, when you knock three things off, and you get those done, you feel accomplished. Accomplished is the opposite of overwhelmed. You feel like you are going in a direction. You feel like you are making some progress and then motivation is going to find you. Momentum is going to find you because you took action.
So right now, quit saying, “I’m just overwhelmed.” You’ve got to move. Overwhelmed is a state. It’s a choice. It’s just looking at these big piles of things and not being able to sit and identify what those things are.
When you create momentum and you get those done, you’ll feel accomplished and motivation is going to find you. Momentum is going to find you because you took action.
Another example of overwhelmed is somebody who didn’t do the work on a daily basis. It’s that person who is starting a fitness program. Let’s say you are starting an in home fitness program, you are doing something like P90X or INSANITY, and you didn’t do your workout Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday you try to do seven P90X workouts or you try to do seven INSANITY workouts. Are you going to feel overwhelmed? Hell yes you are because you are not doing it the right way. You’re not writing out, “These are the things…I just need to do one hour a day, thirty minutes a day, twenty minutes a day,” or whatever that is.
So when you have that big long list of everything you are trying to tackle every single day. Stretch that puppy out and you go like, “I can knock out these three on Monday and I know I can get these two on Tuesday. Maybe I can just get one on Wednesday because one is really hectic, but I can do this one and then I can get these two on Thursday,” and by the end of the week you look back and that long ass list that you used to be overwhelmed by, you’re taking a bite at a time and a bite at a time.
Focus on You
You are mastering this thing and you are controlling your life. You’re running your world instead of making your world run you because that’s what it is. It’s a mindset shift on being overwhelmed. Overwhelmed just saying, “I don’t have control over my life.” Overwhelmed is saying, “I am always playing defense. I am at the whim of everybody else,” and you are worth more than that. You have to decide that you are worth more than just being on everybody else’s clock.
I carve out and make time. I get up at 4:40am in the morning. why? Because if I am going to take care of everybody else that needs me in life, I am going to take care of me first. I’ve got to take care of me first.
It’s just like when you are in an airplane. I got to put the oxygen mask on me first before I help my neighbor. That’s how you are going to get over your overwhelm as well. You’re going to make your list and you are going to take care of you first thing every day. Just one, maybe it’s just one thing, maybe it’s just one thing that moves you closer to that goal you say you have. The building that business, of creating that product, of getting in shape, of eating better. I don’t care what it is.
It’s the same steps.
In fact, I even set up a program where I am going to help you get some momentum and some motivation in five days. You can go to 5DaysFire.com right now and you and I for the first five days are going to get you unoverwhelmed and very motivated and a lot of motivation and momentum. Because I’ve been there. I felt overwhelmed with my weight when I was a 100 lbs overweight. I have felt overwhelmed with my business, with my marriage, with my family, with my life, and it always comes down to the same steps.
So thank you for checking this out. Let me know today in the comments what’s the one thing that you’re doing that you are going to take control of that’s going to move you closer to that goal.
Go to 5DaysFire.com. Let’s meet over there so I can spend the next five days with you helping you get rid of overwhelmed, creating your own motivation and momentum, and getting you closer to that life that you want to live. My name is Coach Jimmy and until next time, keep moving!