Hi! I'm Marie
You have gifts to share with the world and my job is to help you get them out there.
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Button TextI’m sitting here on a plush white couch, looking out at the ocean from the breathtaking open living room in the main house on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island.
I’m blessed to be at an incredible business mastermind event with Richard, hosted by my good friends Joe Polish and Yanik Silver.
All I can say is that my head is exploding with ideas and possibilities. My notebook is filling up and my mind and heart are being stretched in the most incredible ways.
Speaking of loads of ideas, do you ever feel like you have too many? Add to that the daily demands of running and managing your business AND the demands of living a full life- things like eating healthy, working out, keeping your relationship going and having fun. Sometimes, it can all feel a bit overwhelming!
Here’s something I want you to remember – inner chaos creates outer chaos.
When you’ve got a million and one things renting space in your head and your heart, it becomes really difficult to slow down, get clear and actually start getting things done.
In this video, I’m going to walk you through a powerful, 6 minute exercise to help you create total mental clarity and get you out of overwhelm right now.
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Hello! Hello! Hello! Welcome to a very special edition of Q & A Tuesday! Q: So as always, I'm Marie Forleo and we're dealing with a very special question today and this is from a gal in Amsterdam. Her name is Sabine and Sabine writes: "Help, I'm feeling totally overwhelmed! Where do I begin with all the things I have to do?"
A: So, throwing my notes away! You know why? Because we're going to get down into it Overwhelm is one of those things that all of us deal with. If you're creative; if you're a business owner; if you've lots of things going on, chances are there's many, many times in your life where you feel like your head is about to explode. Right? So all of us deal with this. We need to get things done and I have a very special workshop that I'm going to take you through right now that is going to change your freakin life! It's going to take about 10-15 minutes. I want you to go grab a notebook, go grab a pen and come back I'll wait!
You got it? Okay, good! So we're going to get started! So here's what I want you to remember, "inner chaos creates outer chaos." Okay, so if you have much stuff renting space in your head and in your heart. It's going to be impossible to slow down, prioritize, and actually start getting things done. So what we're going to do now is an exercise called Creating Mental Whitespace. This is one of the most incredible that I've ever done to really get things moving fast.
So what you're going to do for the next 10 minutes, when I say 'Go' you're going to press pause on this video and you're going to write your little fingers off. And, what I want you to do is take everything out of here and get it onto paper. So anything that keeps you up at night, things that you wake up worrying about. All the projects that you need to get done; all the things you tell yourself that you should be doing. I want you to just do a total brain numb on to this piece of paper. No editing. No stopping. At least 10 minutes, press pause, Go!
Ooohh... Ah, Lord, that was intense. You need a cigarette? I don't even smoke. You get the point. That was intense. I'm so happy you did it! Great freaking job! Now, we're going to move on and we have a second part to the exercise. What you're going to do now is you're going to put a big fat stinking line through everything on that list that is outside of your control. So what does that mean?
Many of us spend way, way, way too much time worried about things that are just completely not within our control and if we don't have control over it, we shouldn't be spending time on it. We shouldn't be thinking about it. We shouldn't be feeling overwhelmed about it. So what's an example? I don't know, perhaps you feel like you want your mom to love you more, right? You really want your mom to just send you more love and all this stuff and you spend lots of waken time working on it, thinking about it. "How can I make this happen?"
Guess what? You can't control how another person feels. Mom's probably a lovely person but let her do her thing! Now what you could control is feeling more connected to your mom. Maybe you want to write her a letter, even if she's passed away. It's within your control to control how you feel about her, can't control another person. Let's take an example in the business realm, right? Let's say you want to sell, I don't know, $250,000 dollars worth of your new program. Well, guess what? Unfortunately, you can't control people's buying decisions.
Of course, unless you're going to steal their credit cards which is completely illegal. We don't do that, right? What you can control is putting together a really clear marketing plan. You can control sending out your newsletter every week. Things that you can take action on that are within your control that will help you reach your goal but it's a better use of your time and energy. Makes sense? So for the next five minutes, take that beautiful big list, go through everything that is outside of your control, and put a big line through it. Ready? Go!
Hooray!!! You did it! So you're almost there, but we have one more step. Remember, we're clearing out overwhelm. So stick with me here! So the next step to this process, I want you to take that beautiful list that you already have lines through it and we're going to put one more set. It's stripping away everything and what we're going to look for right now is anything that I call "meh." Right? Meh. Meh stands for anything that just basically kind of sucks. Things that you think you should do, you're not passionate about, you feel guilty about, obligated to do.
Things that are just like dragging on your to-do list that just follow you from year-to-year that you say you should get around to. Well, let's face it, it ain't happening. So maybe you keep talking to yourself about wanting to learn a new language but you never do it. Right? You never take classes. You never go to the country. Meh. You're not going to do it. Let's just take it off your list.
Maybe there's some people, I don't know, in your business or your life that you say, "Oh, I should really meet them," but you're doing it because you just want to be nice. You don't really want to meet them. You don't really want to do a project with them. Meh. Comes off your list. So take the next five minutes alright, take a big line through everything that is meh on your list. Do it now!
Happy dance!! Happy dance!! You're done!! So right now what you have is a big beautiful list. Hopefully with lots of lines through it. If you don't have a lot of lines through that stuff, honey press pause and go back and do it again! What's in front of you are the things that you really should devote your time and energy to and now, it's really up to you about how you want to prioritize, schedule, and get them done. Everyone's got their own productivity style.
For me, I like to put things in my schedule, I like to get them in the calendar. That's what helps me just push them on out but this exercise Creating Mental Whitespace, you can use it any time. It'll get you out of overwhelm and into action!
Alright, so that's all we've got for you today for this special Q & A Tuesday. If you like it, like it. Please comment. If you want more great training like this, come on over and see me at marieforleo.com and get on that newsletter list. Most of all, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time!
While completing the “meh” section of the workshop, you may be tempted to scream at the screen and say, “But Marie — so many ‘meh’ things on my list are things I don’t want to do but I feel like I should do to be responsible. What then?!”
Use your common sense! If one of your ‘meh’ items is paying your back taxes, you need to get focused and make it happen.
On the other hand, if a ‘meh’ project is something you agreed to because you didn’t know how to say no with class, or you’ve said yes to too many random coffee dates, then it’s time to renegotiate your commitments and get them off your list.
The point here is to challenge your assumptions of what you have to do and get insanely, brutally honest about what you truly want to devote your life and time to.
Because, like it or not, your clock is ticking. Time is not a renewable resource and the only person responsible for deciding how you invest it is you.
Now, if you haven’t fully done the exercises in the video, please do it now. Because insight means nothing without action.
2013 Update: Four Tools To Help You Stay Out Of Overwhelm
- RescueTime: Ever wonder if you’re really spending your time on the right stuff? There’s one sure-fire way to find out. Check out rescuetime, an amazing tool that has both a free and paid option. (aff. link)
- Any.do: Any.do is an award-winning to do list app. Beautifully designed and simple!
- Care.com: Awesome resource to find local personal assistants, pet care, etc.
- TaskRabbit.com: Another great resource to hire help get things done.
Now, as always, I’d love to hear from you. In the comments below, talk to me.
I wanna know:
1. How do you feel after the doing the exercise to create mental whitespace? How much were you able to clear off your list?
2. Do you have any best tools, apps, or practices that help you stay out of overwhelm?
Be as specific as possible and let us know. Remember, your shares and stories will help us all.
As always, thank you for reading, watching and sharing!
xox
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