Overwhelmed? You're not alone

Overwhelm, burnout, stress, boundaries.

I don’t know about you, but I seem to be having several conversations everyday with people I work with and care about relating to one of these words.

I took a collection of those people, turned them into a hybrid person, and wrote them this letter.

If you’re one of these people, you’re not alone.

If you know one of these people, share this with them.

Hey mate

How are you going? When you told me today how overwhelmed you’re feeling, I could really feel it. I can see how the stress is getting to you. I really feel for you.

You mentioned how hard it is to push back. 

It is hard.

You’re so good at what you do, so you’re in high demand, from so many people. 

The thing is, I can see that it’s getting in the way. 

When you’re at your best, you’re brilliant. You have such a great brain! You’re really valuable. You see things that others just can’t see. Stuff that’s obvious to you is invisible to others. When you help them see it too, they really light up. I’ve seen it. It’s your superpower! 

Right now, how often are you feeling like that? I can see that it’s still happening, but probably not as much as it could be.

Going back to that push back thing. 

I’ve been thinking about it a lot today. You can only push back if you’re really clear what you consider to be an overstep. 

To recognise an overstep you need to know exactly where the boundary is.

The question I have for you is, where are your boundaries? 

Do you know what they are? Where they are? And why? 

As a friend and colleague, I think you need to find them. Easy for me to say! It’s not a 30 minute job, is it?

Imagine you knew exactly where they were and why. You would be able to articulate them to other people and get really disciplined about what you do and how you’re spending your time.

Would that make the push back easier? 

What’s the cost to you and the people around you if you don’t?

How can I help?

What is the smallest step you can take to make a start?