Do you ever feel like you are suffocating at the very thought of trying to get everything done that you need to?  Yeah, I pretty much feel like that every day of my life I have decided.  And yeah, yeah, I know, try to delegate more and say yes to less and cut out the things that are not absolutely necessary….I get all of that and I am trying to do better at all of those things…but I am clearly not doing very good at it because the moment I try to cut something out or say no to something I immediately find myself with fifty more things that want my time or attention, and I get caught in the trap of thinking “well I just said no to this one thing so now I have time to say yes to this thing”….which is messed up because I end up cutting out one thing only to add two more in its place.  So if I am failing in any area of my life this is it – I have got to figure out how to keep my life from getting so overwhelming with things I have to get done that I end up stressed out way too often and I end up never enjoying the moments I am in because I am always too worried about the other fifty things I still haven’t done yet.

They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, so this is me openly admitting I have a problem.  And now I have to try and work on it, but the sad part is I think I have recognized my problem for years and I have been trying to get better at it for years, yet I never seem to improve all that much in this area.  Nonetheless, I refuse to stop trying to improve at it, because I can’t fix anything I am not focused on fixing, right?  So focus on it I will!

Tonight I have started the new mantra “Just take it one day at a time…do the best you can do to finish as much as possible and then be done with the day.”  I literally have to say that to myself over and over again so I don’t lose my mind stressing over what I didn’t get done.  I have to force myself to focus only on the things I have to finish today and not allow myself to think about tomorrow, because if I think about tomorrow that is when the suffocating panic attacks start – okay, not really, but dang close!.  Actually it’s more like that feeling of when you are scuba diving way down low and you look up at the surface of the water 50 feet above your head and suddenly realize that if you had to access a breath of air there would literally be no way you could make it to the top in time – it’s more like that feeling!

Okay, so now you have my confessional for today on where I am not doing so good…to recap:  I need to do better at saying no more often.  I need to do better at not letting my entire day get booked with appointments because doing that leaves no room for the last minute things that inevitably crop up and have to get done in a day.  I need to do better at not focusing on tomorrow’s tasks and just staying focused on the things I can do today so I don’t get so overwhelmed and stressed out.  I need to do better at figuring out what is the priorities that have to happen and what will just have to wait.   I need to do better at not feeling guilty when I have to tell someone no or that I don’t have time…that is the hardest for me but I absolutely need to get better at that if I am going to fix the problem.  So yeah, those are the things I am going to work on.  I will hurry and add all of those to my to do list 🙂 -jk

For all of you who suffer from the same weakness as me I say “YAY! I am not in this alone!”  Maybe we can start our own little support group of Overcommitted Anonymous…except I don’t really get to be anonymous now do I?  Shucks!  Oh well, we can call it Overcommitted And Not-So-Anonymous then!

Have a great day tomorrow, and remember “Just take it one day at a time!”

~Amy