My first mentor always promoted celebrating overwhelm.
“Wait,” I thought, completely puzzled. “If you’re overwhelmed, doesn’t that mean you’re about to burn out?”
Not so! Now, that it is a few years later from being under his tutelage, I understand exactly why. And if you’ll allow me, I’d like to share it with you.
Think of it like this:
In life, we have two options.
1.) Taking the stairs — overwhelm, facing our fears.
Or
2.) Taking the escalator — the easy way out.
Pretend we choose option 1.
Taking the stairs can look scary. It wears us down and can leave us tired, more scared, and not wanting to continue.
And then the next day, we go to take the stairs again and it’s much easier than it was yesterday. If we could do it yesterday, then we can do it again today, and BETTER.
Feeling that fear, and taking the first step to do it anyway is building strength. That in itself is worth celebrating. I myself have always felt fear. Fear of INACTION; what would happen if I did nothing? Now, thanks to my mentor, I have the other piece of the puzzle… Do it anyway.
Now I can confidently say that I embrace that feeling of overwhelm because each day I know I am getting stronger.
