Overcoming Overwhelm

byGPM56

248 followers

Updated 8 years ago

Now that I've been a member for an entire month, it's occurred to me that it's time to push myself to progress to the next step -- blogging here at WA. You see, during the time I've been with WA I've been dogged by a problem that I suspect others may wrestle with as well -- overwhelm. Happily, I've found some methods for dealing with it. so I thought I'd share what's worked for me in the hope that it might be helpful to someone else.

Describing Overwhelm

Overwhelm is a common symptom of anxiety. I have not always had it; in my case it started very slowly and largely unnoticeably about 10 years ago, and it's increased slowly over time to the point where it's somewhat debilitating.

It's difficult to describe how overwhelm feels, so providing an example in the context of WA might be helpful. As I was progressing through Training Course 1, there's a point where instruction is provided with respect to setting up a WordPress site. I had made myself myself march through each of the earlier tasks Kyle had set and was determined to complete these tasks as well, so I took the first step and set up a SiteRubix website. The minute the site was up and I saw it on the screen, though, I instantaneously reached out to shut off the monitor and rolled my chair back from the desk with a look on my face that I can only describe as wide-eyed terror. Overwhelm -- from doing nothing more than setting up an initial SiteRubix website -- had for me essentially reached DEFCON 1.

Baby Steps

The next morning, I took a deep breathe and turned on the computer. But what to do? I certainly wasn't ready to venture back into that "fearsome" training! I looked at Live Chat, but the individuals who happened to be online at that time seemed to be experts at everything compared to me. And reading other people's Success Stories was just depressing for someone who couldn't even get past the most basic training! To say that I did not feel good about myself would be an understatement.

Then I stumbled on giving Feedback. Hey, that was something I could do! I didn't have to be an expert at anything; all I had to do was be myself -- a random Internet user who stumbles onto a website (or is guided to it via carefully selected long tail keywords **twinkle**) and tells its owner what s/he thinks.

Helping others, I found, ultimately helped me much more than it helped them! I loved looking at the websites of other WA member; they were so inspirational, brave and bold enough to actually do the work and put themselves out there -- and they were just like me! If they could do it, so could I.

Winning Against Overwhelm

One of the things I've had to do is accept that I'm going to feel some anxiety in this process. Now I know to anticipate it and allow myself a reasonable amount of time to feel it and work through it, knowing that it is not an insurmountable barrier or a reason to throw in the towel. It will pass and I will progress if I just keep at it.

Another thing I've learned is to mindfully and determinedly push myself into taking each step in the process; once completed, I'm always glad I did! Even if it's something as seemingly small as writing a blog post, it's been my experience that every step is important.

If you've read this far, you'll be glad to know I've made what I consider to be good progress. I've begun to do some substantive work on my website and, with respect to training, I've completed Course 1 and have moved on to Course 2. I've determined to write one blog post a week to share what I've learned through the process, and I'm still devoting some time to giving Feedback as well as beginning to leave Comments. I look forward to the day when I'm confident enough to share my website URL and seek your feedback and comments on it but, in the meantime, many thanks to Kyle and Carson.

Thank you for reading this blog post! Best wishes to all for your continued success.