I woke up this AM with some thoughts on anxiety and wanted to write them out because if I’m being totally honest, anxiety is a big part of my life. From what I’ve heard from you guys, it sounds like I’m not the only one, so here’s what’s bouncing around in my head at the moment…
A couple of weeks ago I was right in the thick of a handful of deals that were coming upon all sorts of issues and it was crazy trying to keep all of them together and from falling apart. I didn’t even have one second to stress out about any of it, it was pure take-action mode. Every second of the day was taken up dealing with the usual agent stuff except Murphy’s law – all of the deals decided to happen at the exact same time so everything felt like it was on mega steroids. It was exhausting but exciting.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks later and we’ve made it through all of those big hurdles (phew!) and closed a few of those pending deals. Things have calmed way down but I’m even more anxious now than I was when I was running at 10000 mph… which got me thinking.
This week I’ve been wondering WHY? For me, I think when I don’t have immediate, urgent fires to deal with, and things are par for the course, my brain just has all the more time and space to start thinking about the things that I should and could be doing (better) and I don’t know where to start! I’ll obsessively think about ALL of the things that need to be handled: did I call this person or that person, send that email, return that package, pay that bill, fix that thing, order that other thing. I’ll randomly get a flashback of something I needed to do that I forgot to write down. Everything, work-related and not, starts swirling in my head and it’s like I can’t see a path out of the chaos.
Decision fatigue, or sometimes procrastination or even feeling paralyzed, is a real thing especially for perfectionist, OCD-type people, which is a club I, unfortunately, have a lifetime membership to. Over the years, though, I’ve kind of developed a formula and some helpful habits for dealing with this and it looks something like this:
Take a Moment of Awareness
Knowing I’m getting lost in the chaos and being aware enough of my own mind has been a massive step forward in me dealing with my anxiety. Awareness allows you to use tools to de-escalate the situation so giving yourself a moment to own, and even name, how you’re feeling- will give you a chance to figure out what you need to do to move past it.
STOP Overthinking
A fun fact about me is when I get in this headspace, I overthink every little nook and cranny in my life – literally and figuratively. It’s wild the places the mind can go when you’re in the middle of an anxious spiral. When I feel it coming on I will literally stop everything I’m doing and do everything I can to bring the logical side of my brain back into the mix and focus on what needs to be done. Writing a list of immediate priorities is always helpful for me, which helps with tip #3…
Start Taking Action
Go. Start. Just getting started with one thing and going from there bit by bit, is the only thing that will keep the anxiety levels down and help me realize if I actually start DOING I’ll feel better. So, it’s Thursday morning, I’m having my coffee, and getting to work on one thing and then the next. Not worrying about yesterday or what I think I’ll need to do tomorrow. Or trying not to at least 😉
Moral of the story? Do your best not to overthink – take action to get at least the first step done NOW. Take the power back from your anxiety. It feels so much better getting things done than letting yourself become paralyzed. Hope this helps!
xx Farrah
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