I’m a freelance writer. I’m also an author, nurse, boss, mother, wife, daughter, sister and more. We all have many parts that come together to make us whole. Usually these different pieces of our lives work in harmony and compliment the other to help us grow and progress. When my mind tires from freelance writing, I work on my fiction. I come home to my family to push stressful thoughts away at the end of my dayjob as a nursing administrator. This balance is necessary for maintaining peace of mind. But what would happen if all the parts of your life demanded your complete attention?
Something Has Got To Give
I set lofty goals for 2017. I spent each day separating my time to devote energy to very different individual tasks throughout the week—until August. The month of the great overwhelm.
All of the endeavors I worked toward throughout the year reared their demanding, impatient heads and collided. The ducks I’d lined up in a row scattered and instead I spent all my time herding cats. Suddenly, I needed to divide my limited time, and attention and attempt to completely focus on:
- My sister and her family visiting from out of state
- Preparation and planning for my parent’s 60th anniversary party
- The kids returning to school & their 16th birthday
- Several large issues at the dayjob that needed extra time and attention
- My upcoming fiction book launch
- An increase in my freelance clients
- Multiple articles due in a very short time frame
Individually, most of these would be good things. Together they were overwhelming. I felt as if there wasn’t enough of me to go around. Yet, I still kept saying yes to new opportunities and obligations. I felt as if I was destined to fail at everything I worked on building all year.
The Threat of Failure Loomed
Sometimes I tend to be stubborn, determined and a bit driven. Okay, most times. I usually refuse to quit even when it seems as if all hope is lost. This bodes well for coffee companies, and for working as a freelance writer, but not so well for sleeping and the maintenance of sanity. Therefore I don’t recommend overwhelming yourself with tasks, but sometimes it happens without our control and we can learn from it.
Lessons Learned
I refused to accept what felt like an impending failure to me in at least one, if not all, areas of my life. In order to power through the tasks and still devote proper attention to responsibilities and complete quality work I changed how I structured my days while utilizing methods to recharge. (Check out methods I used to overcome the great overwhelm on my fiction blog right here.)
A few lessons helped me power through that fear of failure. I continue to draw upon these thoughts when feelings of overwhelm begin creeping in my thoughts.
- Don’t Let Perfection Paralyze You– You can edit or rewrite an article continuously and you can second—and third—guess yourself and your decisions for all areas of your life. But there comes a time when you have to accept that this is your best effort and move on. Ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen?
- Accept What is Out of Your Control- There are some things in life that are completely out of our control. We can only do our best and either move forward, or learn from our mistakes.
How I Evolved
The great overwhelm of August 2017 might have resulted in too much coffee consumption, way too much stress and too little sleep but it didn’t result in failure. In fact, kicking fear to the curb and powering through has enabled me to write faster and better. I increased my portfolio, gained a few new clients and most of all I increased my confidence in my ability to look overwhelm in its ogre eye and say, “Not today, I have work to do”.
How Have You Turned A Possible Failure Into An Accomplishment?
This post was written as part of a Pop Up Blog Carnival hosted by the Healthcare Marketing Network.
More great posts by freelance healthcare writers on this topic can be found on the Healthcare Marketing Network blog.
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