Life Of E's

There are three terms, the first with which you are probably most familiar, that deserve a definition.  Those three terms are: 

Overwhelmed
Underwhelmed, and
Just Whelmed

Be very clear on the fact that you are the only person who can distinguish between and among these three for yourself. Each person has a different tolerance overall…and that tolerance [...]

Tags: just whelmed, overwhelm, overwhelmed, underwhelm, underwhelmed

Reframe Your View of Time
Imagine reframing your perception of what time is. What if you saw time as…

Fluid
Plentiful
Available
Abundant
A blank canvas
Expansive
Ready
Free
Your friend (rather than your enemy)…

Imagine the difference in how you’d feel if one or more of the ones listed above was descriptive of how you view [...]

Tags: abundance, overwhelmed, perspective, time

Who Could You Ask for Help…and In What Areas?
Read the following steps…and do them, please.

Identify the three areas where you are the most overwhelmed right now. The areas might be big or small, personal or professional, longstanding or brand new. Write down those three right now.
Next to each of the three areas, write down just [...]

Tags: delegate, help, interdependent, just whelmed, overwhelmed

What Happens When You Do Ask for Help (and When You Don’t)?
There are upsides and downsides, depending on your personality, for asking and not asking for help. Here are some possible considerations surrounding asking for help:

When you ask for help you may now owe someone else some help. AND, when you ask for help, it [...]

Tags: assistance, delegate, help, just whelmed, overwhelmed

When you are feeling overwhelmed, consider asking for help (and then trusting others to help you).  This is not an easy one for some off you reading this post. Let’s imagine, shall we, that some of you who are reading this have been seen for years as being able to do everything, including:

Handling multiple projects at [...]

Tags: handle, interdependent, just whelmed, overwhelmed, trusting

A teacher who’s a subscriber sent me this email: “I’m a teacher and when I think about everything that has been added to the plate of today’s teacher, I wonder if it’s ever possible to just be ‘just whelmed’ again.”
It’s a reality that people’s plates are “too full,” and thus pretty darn heavy. Practice reframing [...]

Tags: just whelmed, overwhelmed, stress, teaching

One way to diminish overwhelm is to hold things lightly. This is something I learned from my coach, Dr. Joelle Jay of Pillar Consulting.   When we first started working together several years ago, she would hear me talking about all the things I had to do, everything I was working on, how worn out I was, and, well, [...]

Tags: hold lightly, Joelle Jay, overwhelmed, Pillar Consulting

Life can become reasonably overwhelming, at least partially due to the incredible number of choices that are available to us in the ‘modern’ world.  If you would like to reduce your overwhelm, one way to do so is to reduce the complexity that exists in your personal and/or professional life. 
Specific Areas Where Simplifying Makes Sense
Although [...]

Tags: complex, just whelmed, overwhelmed, simple, simplify

Question posed during today’s Life of E’s Email Extravaganza:

Somehow (because I said yes) I feel I have over committed myself and am feeling stressed to the point that sometimes I shut down rather than tackle the list of to do’s.  The good news is I am still meeting deadlines and getting things accomplished.  However, intellectually [...]

Tags: calm, overcommitted, overwhelmed, prioritize