Feeling constantly overwhelmed isn’t a good feeling.
However, this is something that happens more and more in our modern world.
Once you start getting ‘busy’ in life (which, to be honest, is happening earlier and earlier for humans in our modern society), you’ll begin to realize that it’s easy for everything to feel like it’s just too much—and figuring out how to stave off these negative feelings of overwhelm, to find some peace and serenity in life, isn’t always easy.
Personally, I’ve always valued being able to find a sense of calm and purpose.
And when you’re dealing with a lot of overwhelm, this just isn’t possible.
So in this post, we’re going to talk about how to fix the problem of feeling constantly overwhelmed in life, so that you can find more peace and serenity while pursuing your goals and becoming successful.
What Does It Mean When You Always Feel Overwhelmed?
Generally speaking, we tend to feel overwhelmed when we have a lot of things going on and feel like our future and or our situation is just a little bit out of control.
Feelings of emotional overwhelm can also happen when we’ve been subjected to a lot of stress, trauma, change, etc.
This can also happen if you don’t have a plan for the future—and thus, feel like the future is either out of your control, or that it’s headed in a direction that you don’t understand or are unsure of.
This can be very unsettling—and it can definitely leave us feeling overwhelmed.
Disclaimer
This blog post isn’t intended to be a substitute for professional advice from a doctor or therapist.
In fact, getting professional help from a therapist may be a fantastic way to help you overcome your feelings of being overwhelmed.
This post is just intended to describe my own feelings with the phenomenon – and to give you insight into the specific methods and tactics that have worked to help me overcome it in my own life.
How Can I Stop Feeling Overwhelmed All The Time?
This is actually a pretty challenging task.
However, in my life, I’ve found a number of ways to help myself deal with the problem of feeling constantly overwhelmed.
Simply put, goal setting and making a plan for your future can really help you to counter not only negative feelings of overwhelm, but also the reasons behind them.
And so, that’s what we’re going to talk about in this blog post.
6 Steps – How To Use Goal Setting To Overcome Feeling Constantly Overwhelmed
1. Figure Out Where The Feelings Of Overwhelm Are Coming From
This can be a challenging task.
However, it’s in your best interest to try your best to get this sorted out.
Sit down somewhere quiet, where you can use a journal and or a notebook, and really try to figure out which specific situations in your life may be causing you to feel overwhelmed.
One very common culprit with feelings of overwhelm tends to be money.
Another tends to be future security.
When we feel like our future is insecure, and/or when we feel like we’re not quite sure what the future is going to hold, this can make us feel out of control of our own destiny.
And this can definitely lead to feelings of overwhelm.
Another potential cause for feelings of overwhelm is just having too much to do that isn’t contributing meaningfully to your life.
For example, sometimes people end up saying ‘yes’ to things that they don’t actually want to do.
And this can make them feel overwhelmed because it’s taking up energy without contributing to long-term success in their life.
Obviously, there are a lot of reasons for why you may be feeling overwhelmed—but the key here is to sit down and figure out the reasons why.
One really good tip for doing this is to just identify individual situations in your life that are provoking this feeling, and then trace them back to the root source.
This can really do a lot to help you figure out where the feelings of overwhelm are coming from and how you can help.
2. Make A Plan
This is where goal setting and planning can really help you with overcoming situations in your life that result in you feeling constantly overwhelmed.
As you identify situations or specific things in your life that are making you feel this way, get out your journal, your goal planner, or your notebook, and make a plan for how to fix those individual situations.
For example, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by a lack of security in your financial life, one obvious way to help overcome these feelings is to start making SMART financial goals so that you can get control of the money coming in and going out of your bank account.
The main idea here is to figure out the root cause of the overwhelm, and then make a plan for how to either deal with it, overcome it, or eliminate it from your life.
Do you need some help with the goal-setting part of the process? Check out this post for some in-depth goal-setting guidance: 13 Tips For Planning For A Successful Future.
You can also download my weekly goal-setting sheet, print out a few, and give it a try—and/or sign up for my email list to get a free copy of my Goal Setting Essentials Starter Kit.
3. Make Sure You’re Not Pushing Yourself Too Hard
Sometimes, the root cause of overwhelm lies in the fact that we’re trying to accomplish too much at once.
This is an all-too-common thing that we do as humans—and it can lead to a lot of discouragement.
Whenever you first start setting goals for yourself, you may be tempted to set a bunch of goals and accomplish a bunch of stuff.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Setting ambitious goals is awesome!
However, the downside to this is that it can leave you feeling overwhelmed because you won’t have enough time or energy to get all of those ambitious goals accomplished.
This is why it’s usually a great idea to focus on leveling up just one or two important things in your life at a time, and then to only put time and energy into leveling up the other stuff if you can afford to spend that time and energy.
4. Talk To Friends And Family
Sometimes, when you’re feeling overwhelmed, one of the best things to do is to just have a positive conversation with your friends, family, or loved ones.
Perform a conscious rant with someone you can trust.
Vent about your frustrations, and ask your friends for their input.
Sometimes you have to take this advice with a grain of salt, because this person may not fully understand your goals.
However, it can be really useful to get some positive encouragement from people who care about you and want what’s best for you.
There’s definitely plenty of positivity to be gained from just spending some time with people who represent good relationships in your life
5. Let Go Of Things That Are Beyond Your Control
It can be really easy to try to control things that aren’t within your control in life.
This is actually another important goal-setting principle.
You should only set goals that contain steps that are completely controllable to you.
Then, there’s a part of the process where you have to have faith that the steps you’re taking will be sufficient in helping you to achieve your goal.
It can be difficult to let go of the need and/or the desire to want to control your destiny every day.
But here’s the thing—when we’re trying to better our lives and achieve our goals, all we can do is control the things that we have control over, and then let go of the rest—all while having faith that it will all work out based on our hard work, goal-setting, careful planning, and wise strategy.
6. Take Up A Meditation Or Journaling Habit
Personally, I believe that there’s a lot of value to be found in a daily meditation habit when you’re dealing with a lot of stress or overwhelm in your life.
You can do this first thing in the morning, or really at any point throughout the day.
I’m also a big fan of the concept of journaling—especially in the evening before bed.
See, when you take some time to write about your feelings in your journal at the end of the day, you equip yourself with your best possible odds of dealing with all of the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of the day—and then letting them rest before going to bed, so that you can sleep better and wake up with a fresh slate the next day.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand how you can help to keep yourself from feeling constantly overwhelmed in life.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is just another part of the larger, overarching process of turning your dreams into goals, and writing those goals down to create a roadmap for success in your life.
This is how you begin your journey to success and crush it.
You’ve got this. I believe in you.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Best wishes…
Jay O’Donnell