6 helpful reminders for the overwhelmed person.txt


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title: 6 helpful reminders for the overwhelmed person 
date:  20130917 16:02:24
tags:  #work #gtd #writing #business
---

[Source](http://www.raptitude.com/2013/10/6-helpful-reminders-for-the-overwhelmed-person/)

1. The sky has fallen a thousand times already
2. Your problems are the same problems human beings have always had
3. Being overwhelmed comes from a breakdown of your thoughts about your life, not a breakdown of your life
4. It is mathematically unlikely that your problems are as bad as you think they are
5. Things change pretty quickly when you start doing things instead of thinking so much
6. It is most tempting to not do things when you most need to do things

There is a tendency to freeze when things feel like they’re going off the rails, for two reasons. The first reason is that you are afraid to make things worse. But the bigger reason is that by making a decision to do something you are deciding to take responsibility for where you are, and that’s not a natural reflex for most of us. 

Believing another party is responsible is tempting because it lets you fantasize about a deus ex machina ending to your crisis, the timely swooping-in of the cavalry, which makes for a lame movie because it makes a fool of the protagonist, and never really happens in real life anyway.

--

I fall prey to the last two all the time, particularly the dues ex machina fantasy, which stops me from pursuing what I need to do by offering a just wait and it will come fantasy -- which, albeit, sometimes does happen, but it's best to continue pursuing what you want, that is getting things done in that direction at least, even as you wait for the potentially unexpected.