Overwhelm

"Sometimes you ride the bull, sometimes the bull rides you."

I first heard this a long time ago from my dear brother.

The saying hasn't left my head since.

Like all idioms, it holds a profound truth.

Sometimes we're on top, in the flow with the bull.

Often, unfortunately too often, the bull rides us and we feel driven and unable to keep up.

Here's a paradoxical thing I'd like to share with you:

I've been professionally "in business" for over 20 years now.

In retrospect, I can say one thing very clearly:

The more I was stressed and "deep" into things, the worse my results were.

The LESS I did, the better they became.

That sounds crazy.

You would think that the more I do, the better it gets.

In my case, that was never true.

The big question is:

How can I manage to ride the bull more and be ridden less?

How do I go from overwhelmed and chasing things to holding the reins and being in the flow?

Why is it important?

My "state" determines my results.

If I'm stressed and overwhelmed, my results are weak.

If I have an overview and am in the flow, my results are strong.

The reason is quite simple:

The less I am "underwater," the better I can distinguish between urgent and important.

If I'm too stressed, I lose this ability.

Then too many things seem equally important and urgent - and accordingly, my state is of paramount importance.

The difficulty lies in a paradox:

The more the bull rides me, the more difficult it becomes for me to regain the upper hand.

Here is the momentum principle at work.

Momentum can turn downward or upward.

When the bull is really riding me, I'm already in a significant downward momentum.

BECAUSE I'm so stressed and under pressure, it seems so much harder to get out of there.

So how do I do it?

Awareness: You and I, we need to be clear that it is our NUMBER ONE task to get into a state where we are riding the bull.

The whole thing has to work like an alarm bell.

If I notice that I am floundering, then the alarm must go off.

It must awaken me with a loud and shrill sound from the illusion that being this stressed benefits me in the slightest.

I know, awareness alone is not enough.

But it is a crucial, NECESSARY condition.

Not sufficient, but necessary.

Turning Momentum: In the next step, I (based on my awareness) start to turn the momentum from negative to positive.

This is like a door that I just need to get my fingers into a small gap to slowly open.

I don't need to rip it open immediately.

It's enough if I get my fingers into the gap.

Daily Routine: The key to turning my momentum is to adjust my daily routine.

Because we only need to get the finger into the gap, I don't need to completely overturn my routine.

That's unrealistic and can backfire.

No, we'll make it very simple.

We change the first 10 minutes of our workday.

No more, no less.

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