I recently listened to an excerpt from an interview with Deepak Chopra where he talked about how, all throughout the eons of evolution, episodes of punctuated disequilibrium and a proliferation of chaos (translation – overwhelming chaos and craziness!) lead to a quantum leap in creativity. Now, although he was talking about this in the context of broader universal terms, his insight can absolutely be applied to each one of us in our daily lives – especially in these turbulent and uncertain times, with all of the challenges they bring for us as moms.

I know for me, as a Mom Entrepreneur, my business thrives on my creativity, and when I have experienced times of fear and overwhelm (we all know those 3:00 AM “wake-up calls” where our minds are racing almost as fast as our hearts!), my creativity tends to come to a screeching halt. Let’s face it – as moms, all of the skeletons of self-doubts that we try to keep tucked away out of sight and out of mind tend to come tumbling out of the closet in times of difficulty or crisis. And I speak to both working- and stay-at-home moms daily, who have previously or are currently experiencing the same discomfort and the accompanying feelings of stress, tightness, pressure, and often downright panic that this overwhelming chaos and uncertainty can bring on.

Based on my own personal experiences, as well as what I have observed with other mom-friends, clients, and peers, Deepak Chopra’s wisdom is completely accurate! When I have allowed myself to just breathe during those times of paralyzing fear and overwhelm, and given myself the space to take a step back and take a literal mental and physical break from the panic (i.e., spending a day reading an inspiring book I’d been wanting to get to, or diving completely into some relaxing family-time, or focusing on some simple work activities that let me accomplish something, but without too much struggle or effort), I suddenly have all sorts of creative ideas, opportunities, and solutions flowing into my mind, and I find myself moving toward a way-better place then I had imagined when I was standing on the front-side of all of that fear and anxiety.

Now, I know this all sounds a little counter-intuitive and over-simplified, but I swear it is true, and it works! The next time you find yourself feeling like your back is up against the wall and you can feel that horribly heart-racing panic setting in, try to consciously take that step back, take that breather, and focus on doing something that makes your heart happy for even just a little bit. Focus on what you CAN do in this moment, and take it one little step at a time. Your conflicted feelings don’t define who you are, or make you unworthy, undeserving or somehow inadequate – it is a natural part of evolution… of you growing and shedding something that no longer serves you, to allow you to move forward toward something that has more meaning for who you are becoming and where you want to go!

Recognize your situation as simply a moment in time that you will absolutely make it through. And then, remember that you have the choice – the situation at hand is at hand, and you can either choose to remain in an awfully unpleasant and unproductive state of fear, or you can choose to see it as Deepak Chopra’s “punctuated disequilibrium” – a short-term moment of out-of-balance discomfort – that will help propel you forward to a place of increased creativity and new meaning that wouldn’t have come about otherwise!

Live Positively Fulfilled!

Lynn Ely
MomEvolve
Inspiring Moms to Evolve TM
www.momevolve.com

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting a free teleseminar called “Moving From Overwhelm to Making Time For ME – What’s Been Stopping you?” I was already feeling great about all of the valuable info I knew I had packed into the call, regarding how to overcome obstacles that keep us stuck in To-Do overwhelm, but then I started hearing from moms who had listened in, either live or via the audio afterwards, and I couldn’t help but get even more excited! Moms were telling me how they left the call feeling enthusiastic and empowered about tackling To-Do’s that had previously kept them stuck for months and even years! Some moms even shared that they had literally taken on a whole new attitude in general, and that they were already experiencing more confidence, peace, and fun with their families! How’s that for an awesome call?! It is that kind of feedback that makes all the time and effort of planning a teleseminar SO worth it!

If you missed the call and would like to listen to all of the great tips we shared for moving out of To-Do overwhelm, you can still register at www.momevolve.com/audio/overwhelm11410.mp3, and you’ll receive the free audio-recording in your In-Box shortly. I would love to hear how the call helps you too, so please feel free to leave a comment here, or e-mail me at lynn@momevolve.com. Enjoy!

Live Positively Fulfilled!

Lynn Ely
MomEvolve
Inspiring Moms to Evolve TM
www.momevolve.com

“Decide that you will not try to do everything at once. That is why time is spread out.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

As mothers, we often take one look at our To-Do list and literally become paralyzed with overwhelm, knowing that there is way more on there than is humanly possible to get done as quickly as we would like or feel we “should” be able to. Why do we put all of this self-imposed pressure on ourselves?

When our kids bring home a full agenda of homework or have a big class project to work on, do we just stand their wide-eyed and frozen, and join them in their concern that it is just too much and they will never get it done? Of course not! (Well, we may think this for a moment, but we’d never let them in on that little nugget of doubt!) We help them prioritize their tasks and dig in, checking off each item as it is completed, and moving on to the next. Why then do we put so much pressure on ourselves to simultaneously attack every item on our To-Do list, and then feel like a failure if we don’t get as much done in a given day as we had hoped? We all know from experience that motherhood is not a single-focus activity where you get to give each To-Do item your undivided attention until it is done, and then neatly and smoothly move on to the next. Our lives as moms are full of unforeseen interruptions and schedule de-railers that just come as part of the daily job. So we need to learn to go easier on ourselves when our days don’t necessarily go as productively as we had hoped when we got started on them after breakfast.

Try to choose 1-3 of your top priorities each day and try to schedule their completion into your agenda, realizing that there will likely be something that comes up right in the middle of it all that may slow down your intended progress. That’s OK! If you set the maximum goal of working on 2-3 tasks, and agree with yourself to be completely satisfied with progress on any one of them, then even a baby-step in the right direction is great progress you can be proud of! And to take even more pressure off, you may want to shift your perspective toward weekly To-Do’s, rather than daily To-Do’s. Shoot for completing 1-3 tasks on your list each week, and even if you only get a little work toward one or two done each day, by the end of the week, you’ll have completed some, be able to remove them from your list, and focus on the next. Again, kind of like helping your child with a class project – normally (except in the dreaded “It’s 9:00 PM Sunday night and you’re finding out about a class project for the first time that’s due tomorrow” situation!!) you spread the completion of the project out over days, or with larger projects, even weeks, and break it down into “digestible” chunks to complete a little at a time. You can do the same thing with your To-Do list. Figure out which items are your biggest priorities, take a look at a reasonable timeline for completion, and spread the steps out over a few days or longer. That way, if one day gets away from you and you don’t get to the task, you know that you’ve already given yourself permission to get to it the following day and still feel great about it!