Are you sitting in a state of overwhelming right now? As you know, I connect with a lot of people on a daily basis so I tend to hear some common threads from time to time. What I am finding is that a lot of people, especially female business leaders that are also spouses, moms, and the like, are all experiencing overwhelm due to a lack of answers.
What does that mean?
It means you are used to having all of the answers. You are used to knowing what is happening in the world, or at least your world, so you can use good judgment, make sound decisions, and plan. Ultimately, you want to PLAN. But you can’t. You can’t because we all thought we would have answers right now, and we don’t.
We all thought that when the “fall” rolled around, and for us in the US when we say fall we really mean the start of school and football season, we thought that we would have answers. Answers that would then help us create plans. And we aren’t talking crazy plans, we are talking simple plans like when are the kids going to start school, are they going to go to school or still be at home, are we going to be able to come together as a community to enjoy football this year or will that be eliminated too (we love our sports!). We need these answers.
We need them because we need to be able to plan our lives. That doesn’t mean we are downplaying the seriousness of the virus. It doesn’t mean we are selfish and we don’t care about the impact this virus is having on all of us. No. It simply means we have responsibilities in our own worlds that continue and we want to know how to carry forward with those responsibilities.
Do we need to buy the kids new school clothes or just new school shirts (for the camera-only school)? Do they need paper and pencils or an extra cord for their laptops? Do we need to invest in a better “at home” school space or is that unnecessary? We need to know these things! These things are things we have always had to take care of and now we don’t know what to do.
We also need to be able to plan because we need to know if we are going to be able to go back to the office, if we need to try to find someone to help with the home responsibilities or not, if we can even establish a routine around grocery shopping, etc. It’s simple. It’s basic. But we want to be able to plan because again, we are all still responsible for ensuring these pieces of our lives happen.
I’m here to tell you, I get it! And I want to help you eliminate your overwhelm. So here is what I want you to do:
–Write down your list of the situations you need answers on. Write down ALL of them.
–Next, write down the worst-case scenario for each of those situations. For example, if you have school-aged kids, the worst-case scenario is that they have to do virtual learning this fall.
–Last, write down your PLAN for that worst-case scenario, for each situation. What will you do in that situation?
Now you have answers which means you also have plans. No longer are you overwhelmed? Do we want the worst-case scenario to happen? No, but can you handle it if it does? Yes, you can now. You have taken control over the situations, you have determined what the worst-case scenario would be, how you will work through them, and you have a plan for your life.
Be Legendary!