If that’s how you woke up this morning, I have two strategies for you…
The saying goes: “If you want something done, ask someone who’s busy.”
Not: “If you want something done, ask someone who’s overwhelmed.”
There’s a lot of great aspects to entrepreneurship. Freedom, flexibility, unlimited potential, creative self-expression. However, a clearly defined (and ordered) set of tasks is NOT on that list.
And sometimes I look wistfully in the rear-view mirror as that clarity and order disappears into the recesses of my memory.
But the only way out is through, and it’s highly likely that generating the internal clarity and presence to make (and do) my own list despite myriad beeping distractions is the spiritual growth that ultimately makes this whole journey worthwhile.
So here are two strategies I use to get off the overwhelm and back on the horse. Maybe one of them will work for you.
Strategy One: Narrowing In
One of my main tools to help myself and my clients emerge from overwhelm is a question:
“What’s the most important thing you could do this week to get a step closer to your long-term vision?”
It may not be sexy. It may not be fun. But there might be something that makes the difference.
My approach to coaching is “long-term hedonic”: I’m encouraging people to do what Feels Good for their highest and best selves, in the long-term. And I’m trusting that our best selves are “expanded” enough that what’s good for Them is good for All of Us.
If you ask that question and get a clear answer, like “Write a first draft of X” or “Post that job description” or “Brainstorm for 2 hours” then great: Do It.
But sometimes you just have a pile of 347 things, none of which are inspiring or major or particularly needle-moving, but all of which need to get done for one reason or another. In that case, I switch to Strategy Two.
Strategy Two: The Chain of Inspiration
The basic idea of the Chain of Inspiration is that for every shitty task you have to do, you can either:
- Find deep soul-nourishing inspiration somewhere behind it, or
- Safely not do it.
The way to seek inspiration is to ask “Why” or some variation thereof.
Here’s an example from my tasks this week:
“Reach out to everyone I’ve had a business-related conversation with in the last 3 months about Goals Day and The Night Vision Summit”
Goals Day and The Night Vision Summit are two upcoming events I’m planning. This is exactly the kind of task I hate since:
- It involves work an algorithm should be able to do for me
- It involves intruding on peoples’ lives with an unsolicited email.
So I’ve got some pretty good reasons for subconsciously avoiding this task.
The Chain of Inspiration strategy instructs me to interrogate why it would be worthwhile to do such a task.
Well… I want people to show up to this event, and at the moment, there’s no way for people to know about it unless I tell them it’ll happen.
But why do I want people to show up?
Well… I really love doing these events. I love the sense of community and togetherness, and I love the insights and transformations that happen (particularly at the in-person event).
I could keep going, but already can feel the sense of pizazz and inspiration and motivation, even as I do this exercise just for the sake of writing about it. It’s that good, because I actually care.
Most of us do this unconsciously all the time. I can only imagine the kind of suffering that medical students go through for years or authors go through as they meticulously rewrite the same paragraph dozens of times. Without the Chain of Inspiration, we’d have 95% fewer doctors and no great books!
And of course, if you can’t find a deeply moving reason to do that shitty task, then you’re free not to do it. If it doesn’t lead to your self-actualization, your creative self-expression, your connection with others, your sense of meaning, your short- or long-term pleasure, your safety, your survival, your care and protection of others, then why are you doing it?
Finally, there’s a short-cut to make this process a lot easier. The clearer sense you have of what you’re trying to achieve, the easier it is to climb the Chain of Inspiration. If you take the idea really seriously, you would have a really clear set of indicators for what you’re trying to do over all timescales (this quarter, this year, 5 years, 10 years, 25 years) across the different areas of your life (Vocational, Financial, Creative, Relationships, Spiritual, etc.). You might even have all of this written down and close at hand.
And that way, in any moment of doubt, fear, overwhelm, or indecision, you have a built-in Decision Criteria, made by a thoughtful and non-stressed version of yourself, to reconnect you with What Really Matters behind that shitty task on your list.
How does that sound?
Ankur Shah Delight: Community and Conflict 