Overwhelm, confusion, and why you’re really stuck in your business.
How many times in your journey as a business owner have you felt overwhelmed, confused, or just plain stuck?
Probably a lot.
Before we had businesses, we worked a job and went to school where the expectations, tasks, and duties were super clear. It was ALL laid out.
In our business, not only are the goals totally up to us, the way to get there is too – and if you’re following more than 1 online business expert, you will notice we all have a different spin on it – how much you should want to make in your business, the formula you should follow to get there, the one thing you aren’t doing that will change it all.
All of this information causes you to doubt your own intuition for your business (and it’s yours, btw…) and freeze in inaction.
The WORST thing you can do in your business is stop taking action. Any action, even the wrong action, is better than none because at least you’ll eventually learn a lesson and be able to tweak it into a new action.
As easy as it is to blame other people, it’s not the online business experts’ fault you’re stuck and confused. They are all building businesses based on what they’ve learned works best – including me!
It’s your fault you’re stuck, overwhelmed, and confused. Maybe that feels harsh to hear – but it’s actually the best news ever because it means you’re completely in control to turn this ship around.
Why do we feel overwhelmed and confused?
Our brains are made up of different parts that do different things. The most basic/primitive part is perfectly set up to help us survive – in ancient times. Like our fight or flight instinct, which helps us make a snap decision in a critical moment if we encounter a bear while we’re out berry picking.
One of the major rules this part of our brain follows is new = danger = death. So while this was great for an ancient human (i.e. “don’t leave the area you know because we have no idea what’s out there and you literally might die.”), it sucks for a modern human (i.e. “don’t try this new Facebook Live thing because you don’t know what will happen and you literally might die!”)
The most advanced part of our brains (prefrontal cortex) is where our goals, self discipline, and higher self lives. The one that says, “it’s uncomfortable but I have a hunch that launching a podcast is going to help you massively increase your visibility and reach your business goals!”
As you can imagine, these two parts rarely agree, and it causes something called cognitive dissonance – basically when you try to hold two conflicting thoughts at the same time. Can you see where I’m going with this?
Confusion, overwhelm, and feeling stuck are when we don’t resolve that conflict and we just let the two parts argue all.day.long. It totally depletes our energy and brain power and yet we haven’t even done anything.
Here are a few ways to get yourself out of this pattern and start making progress:
- Just do it. If a new idea scares me, I know I have to do it. It feels awful, it’s the last thing I want to do, but I do it whether I feel like it or not. I’m not a superhuman freak of willpower, you can do this too.
- Make a plan. Write out all the steps it will take to accomplish this big scary goal and literally schedule it into your calendar. I often schedule my Facebook lives in advance so my audience will hold me accountable.
- Thank the fear. It’s ok to acknowledge that lower part of your brain that’s just trying to keep you safe. Basically tell it “thanks, I love that you want to keep me alive. I’m not going to die by launching a YouTube channel.”
- Journal. When in doubt, sit down and fill a page with all of your thoughts. Don’t hold anything back, just free write everything in your mind. Sometimes getting that space from our thoughts allows us to see just how wacky some of it is.
