When the end of the year approaches, we realize how many were left, right?
When the end of the year approaches, we realize how many of our #goals were left unfulfilled, right?
But let's start at the beginning.
What a beautiful festive season, isn't it? It's a period of family, joy, and light. It also means shopping, travel and strikes, messages and conversations—lots of nods and smiles.
Conversations with family and friends force us to take stock of our lives. Even if this is often not communicated in a relaxed conversation with uncle Ben during Christmas dinner, internally, this balance is starting to be taken, and the fact that a new year begins soon also helps this process even more.
We should have done all these things according to our friends and family or simply our expectations (and dreams).
We often consider it too late to do or correct something, and we shouldn't worry about it anymore. We are #confused by what we have not been able to achieve by a specific date, and this #paralyzes us not only from not trying but also from not wanting to accomplish other things.
I could be talking about quitting smoking, losing weight, or learning a new language. But more importantly, I'm talking about that #dream over there that we leave in the corner of our memory.
Logically, we would think that with age, we would go into high gear and start doing all these #postponed things. But perhaps the travel list will be the only item we will stick to.
That which requires more #time and #concentration and whose results will not be immediately visible make our #motivation sink and the brain foggy.
Having one or more objectives in view that require many things to do and getting blocked so that we end up not doing any of them is a recognized psychological phenomenon called the freezing of overwhelm, and it has a cure. And that's the excellent nova: I won't say about this festive period but on this chronicle.
In the INC. article, I learned from Professor Ellen Hendriksen of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University that this excessive freezing is common and studied in psychology.
She also explains that we freeze in front of a list of complex and/or overwhelming tasks, which has been known to happen since the time of our ancestors in the face of the most diverse threats.
"Our bodies react to threat in the same way, whether it's the external threat, like the proverbial saber-toothed tiger, or the internal threat," she said.
And so, what can we do about it?
Since over-freezing is a stress response, all the usual stress-reduction techniques like deep breathing, exercise, and reminding yourself that it's normal and human to be less than perfect are good places to start.
In addition, it is advised to review your to-do list and:
- Start with the easiest task.s;
- To delegate;
- Batch your work (everyone will get a pair of socks this Christmas) and;
- (if it seems to be something very complicated or complex) subdivide it into small mini-tasks. Very small. Micro tasks if necessary.
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."
Piers Steel.
My favorite advice is to rewrite your to-do list as if you're giving "instructions to a teenager who really doesn't want to do this, so you have to be very specific," explains Steel.
Once your to-do #list is reorganized, the next step is to get started.
Start with something easy and enjoyable to help you build momentum.
For longer ones, start with just five minutes. Here, I remember an example of a friend who wanted to lose weight. She was advised to exercise for five minutes daily. After a while, she wanted to keep exercising for more than those five minutes. Still, her trainer forced her to follow the plan of reduced times to the letter and implement the habit in her routine before launching into an hour-long class and never returning. The truth is, it worked! She was over height, and today, she is a certified fitness teacher in addition to her profession as an architect.
For activities that promise absolutely no joy, try to delegate if you can, or do them with a reward in mind.
Whatever you need to do, start by doing that #microtask that you can do easily and immediately because the longer you take, to take action, the more likely you will get stuck.
As for me, I'm getting better at this; age helps.
When the pressure starts to tighten, I tend to limit myself, which pays off. When I start to feel blocked in a situation, the fact that I begin to do less or more slowly allows me to observe what is happening. This way, I can correct, adapt, and deliver or finish the proposed projects.
How about you? What little task could you do today to break your freeze?
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This post was written based on an Inc. article you can find here and the following books: "Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results" by Stephen Guise & "Small Habits, Big Changes" by Steven Handel.
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