Almost everyone I have talked to over the last few years says the same thing: “Life is really overwhelming.”
And it’s so prevalent that it reminds me of COVID, which was a sudden, powerful pandemic that shook the whole world and disrupted our lives. Overwhelm is the opposite: slow, dripping like an IV, spreading through society, but today, a pandemic, nonetheless.
And the vaccine?
Well, that lies within.
What is Overwhelm?
I want to begin by answering this question, so we have a shared definition to work with.
Anytime someone says, “I’m overwhelmed,” it means that they have more on their plate than they can handle.
Their bottle can hold a liter of water; the world is trying to fill it up to two.
They only have twenty-four hours in the day, but they’re expected to show up with forty-eight for work.
They only have time for reading one book, but Instagram makes them feel they’re not reading enough.
And the more we believe we’re overwhelmed, the worse it gets. This virus doesn’t use bodily fluids to spread; it uses belief instead.
Ultimately though, the virus infects our minds and lives so much that new things bring fear before excitement—the prospect of something new burdens us even if it is a beautiful opportunity.
So, the core problem of overwhelm is that we’re trying to do quite a lot with limited time and resources, straining those fragile sources of power until we’re exhausted, broken down, and spent away like a dollar bill circulating for a hundred years. It’s essentially the same problem economists deal with—the basic reason the study of economics exists is that the world has unlimited demands but limited resources.
The question they ask is, “How can we use our resources in the best way to get what we want?”
And since Adam Smith’s classic book, The Wealth of Nations, to today’s dynamic economic theories, the quest for this answer has helped the world progress by leaps and bounds.
By prioritizing efficiency, alignment, minimal waste of resources, and better systems, the world is now at a level of economic growth and success that would be considered impossible a couple of centuries ago.
So, we know the question the economists ask clearly works, so can we apply it to our own lives?
Turns out we can, and when we do, magic unfolds in the way we live. The first step is to…
Stop Asking the Wrong Question:
Whenever we’re overwhelmed, we ask ourselves, “How can I be less overwhelmed?”
That’s the wrong question!
If economists were to ask a similar question, their quest would be, “How can we get the world to expect and demand less so the resources don’t get strained?”
Knowing human beings, we can already say that’s a futile attempt. Every religion in the world has tried its best to make people believe that materialism, the normal life, and other desires are sinful, and that the only path to glory is to surrender to God and His spiritual path.
Thousands of years later, they’re still trying. It’s not effective to ask human beings to want and demand less.
So, when you ask, “How can I be less overwhelmed?” you’re trying to swim upstream. You’ll probably try some meditations, candles, incense sticks, books, tips, even distractions.
But you know, it doesn’t last. Which is why you need to…
Start Asking the Right Question:
And that question comes from a lens very similar to that of successful economics: “How can I become more efficient to align, empower, energize, systemize, and delegate my life enough to get everything done without being overwhelmed?”
And when you think from that lens, you’ll see that the real cause of your overwhelm is not that you have too much to do; it’s that you’re an inefficient manager!
Look at anyone who’s made it big, and you’ll realize they don’t manage overwhelm; they structure their life in such a way that overwhelm never has time to bog them down.
Most of us are running our lives like a car with wheels pointed sideways.
The effort is there; the fuel is too.
But because the wheels are misaligned, it’s taking a lot more fuel and effort to get to the same result.
If you ask yourself to be okay with not reaching the destination a thousand miles away because getting there would be overwhelming, that would be a shame.
But if you ask yourself, “How can I realign the wheels so I have maximum power?” you do a quick fix, and the thousand-mile journey feels like a breeze.
That’s the easiest way to deal with overwhelm. Think like an economist. Attack it back with the vaccine of efficiency thinking, and you’ll be amazed at how fast it disappears from your life!
Always Rooting for You,
Prabhsimrat :)
