442: Stop Feeling Overwhelmed And Make Better Decisions A Podcast For Accountants And High-Stress Professionals
442: Stop Feeling Overwhelmed And Make Better Decisions A Podcast For Accountants And High-Stress Professionals
Have you ever had one of those days where you look at your calendar, your inbox, your to-do list, your text messages, and everything seems to be demanding your attention? If you’re an accountant, CPA, bookkeeper, tax preparer, business owner, or other high-stress professional, you’ve probably experienced it. You’ve got a client who needs something. You’ve got a deadline coming up. You’ve got an employee who needs an answer. You’ve got emails you haven’t responded to. You’ve got a project that’s already behind. Maybe you’re trying to grow your business. Maybe you’re trying to take care of your family. Maybe you promised yourself you'd finally make time for exercise or something you enjoy. And then you look at everything and think How am I supposed to get all of this done. Do you ever wonder how you could stop feeling overwhelmed? Let’s look at how you can make better decisions when everything feels important. Let’s dive in…
Whether you’re an accountant, CPA, bookkeeper, tax preparer, business owner, or other high-stress professional, this episode will give you practical ideas you can use to think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and get more out of life.
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Have you ever had one of those days where you look at your calendar, your inbox, your to-do list, your text messages, and everything seems to be demanding your attention? If you’re an accountant, CPA, bookkeeper, tax preparer, business owner, or other high-stress professional, you’ve probably experienced it. You’ve got a client who needs something. You’ve got a deadline coming up. You’ve got an employee who needs an answer. You’ve got emails you haven’t responded to. You’ve got a project that’s already behind. Maybe you’re trying to grow your business. Maybe you’re trying to take care of your family. Maybe you promised yourself you'd finally make time for exercise or something you enjoy. And then you look at everything and think How am I supposed to get all of this done. Do you ever wonder how you could stop feeling overwhelmed? Let’s look at how you can make better decisions when everything feels important. Let’s dive in…
Welcome Back…Today, I want to talk about something that I think almost every high-performing professional has experienced. And that is the feeling that it seems like everything is important. I want to suggest something that may change the way you look at overwhelm. The problem may not be that you have too much to do. The problem may be that you're trying to treat everything as equally important. When everything feels important, everything starts to feel urgent. And when everything feels urgent, it's very difficult to think clearly. You start reacting instead of choosing. And that's where overwhelm really starts to take over. Think about a typical day during tax season. You may have ten tax returns that need attention. A client calls because they have a question. Your email keeps filling up. Someone on your team needs your help. There's a deadline coming tomorrow. You haven't eaten lunch. You know you need to get home at a reasonable time because you have something going on with your family. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you're thinking about all the things you're not getting done. So what happens? You start jumping from one thing to another. You answer the email. Then you get distracted by another email. You take the phone call. Then you remember the tax return. Then someone asks you a question. Then you look at your calendar. Then you realize you're behind on something else. And at the end of the day, you may have worked ten or twelve hours. You may have accomplished a lot. But you still feel like you didn't get enough done. That's exhausting. And this is one of the reasons I believe learning to lead yourself under pressure is so important. Because being productive isn't necessarily the same thing as being intentional. You can be extremely busy and still not be spending your time on what matters most. So let's take a step back. When you're overwhelmed, I want you to notice what your brain is telling you. Maybe it's saying: “I have too much to do.” Maybe it's: “I don't have enough time.” Maybe it's: “Everyone needs something from me.” Maybe it's: “If I don't get this done, everything is going to fall apart.” Maybe it's: “I can't say no.” Or maybe it's simply: “I have to get all of this done.” Notice how those thoughts make you feel. They probably don't make you feel calm and focused. They probably create some combination of anxiety, frustration, pressure, guilt, or urgency. And then what do you do from that feeling? You may rush. You may procrastinate. You may avoid making a decision. You may work longer. You may become short with someone. You may keep checking your email. You may try to do five things at once. And then you get results that aren't necessarily what you wanted. You might make mistakes. You might feel like you're always behind. You might not be fully present with your family. You might go to bed thinking about work. And then you wake up the next morning and do it all over again. This is why I talk so much about the connection between how we think, how we feel, how we respond, and the results we create. The circumstances may be real. The workload may be real. The deadline may be real. But there is still a space between what is happening and what you do next. And that space is where you get to lead yourself.
So here's a question I want you to start using when everything feels important: “What matters most right now?” Not: “What can I possibly get done?” Not: “What is everyone else asking me to do?” Not: “What would make me feel less guilty?” And not: “What can I check off my list?” Instead: “What matters most right now?” Let me give you an example. Let's say you're a business owner and you have a major client deadline tomorrow. You also have 47 emails sitting in your inbox. You have three administrative tasks that you've been putting off. You have a sales call scheduled. And you've been telling yourself you need to work on your long-term business goals. Everything feels important. But is everything equally important right now? Probably not. The client deadline may be the priority. The emails can wait. The administrative work may be able to wait. Your long-term business planning may be important, but perhaps today isn't the day to spend two hours on it. That's not failure. That's prioritizing. And there is a difference. Sometimes we create additional pressure because we believe that if something is important, it has to be done immediately. But that's not true. Something can be important without being urgent. And something can be urgent without being the most important thing for you. That's a distinction worth learning. Because when you can separate important from urgent, you start getting some control back. Now, I want to be clear about something. I'm not suggesting that you just make a list and magically your overwhelm disappears. Sometimes your workload really is too much. Sometimes there really are too many responsibilities. Sometimes you really do have a difficult deadline. And sometimes there are things you simply have to get done. This isn't about pretending otherwise. It's about asking: “How do I want to lead myself through this?” That's a very different question. Instead of: “How do I make all of this go away?” You ask: “What is the best way for me to handle what is in front of me?” That puts you back in the driver's seat. And this is where the idea behind Leading Yourself Under Pressure becomes so important.
You don't have to control everything around you in order to have more control over yourself. You can control the next decision. You can control your next response. You can control whether you pause before reacting. You can control whether you make something more urgent in your mind than it actually is. You can control whether you allow someone else's emergency to automatically become your emergency. And you can decide what matters most. Now, here's something else I want you to think about. What happens when you spend your entire day reacting to work? Eventually, that reaction can follow you home. Maybe you finish work, but you're still thinking about the client. You're sitting at dinner and checking your phone. You're talking to your spouse, but your mind is somewhere else. Your child wants your attention, but you're thinking about tomorrow's deadline. You finally get into bed, and your brain starts reviewing everything you didn't finish. So even though you're technically not working, you're still carrying the work with you. And that's one of the reasons I don't want The RE*INVENTION™ Process to be simply about becoming more productive. Because I don't want you to become more productive at creating a life that you don't enjoy. I want you to be able to perform well professionally and have a life outside of your work. That's why I think about the process in three simple words: THINK. RESPOND. LIVE. Think clearly. Respond differently. Live intentionally. When you're overwhelmed, start with the THINK part. Ask: What am I thinking right now? What am I making this mean? Am I telling myself that everything has to happen today? Am I telling myself that I can't say no? Am I telling myself that if I don't handle everything perfectly, I've failed? Or am I simply noticing that I have a lot to do? Those are very different thoughts. Then comes RESPOND. Once you recognize what's going on in your mind, ask: “How do I want to respond?” Do I want to keep reacting? Or do I want to pause? Do I want to make one intentional decision? Do I need to set a boundary? Do I need to ask for help? Do I need to communicate a different expectation? Do I need to decide that something can wait? And then comes LIVE. Because eventually, these decisions affect the life you're creating. If you continually respond to pressure by working late every night, never saying no, and putting yourself last, that becomes your life. But if you begin making different choices, even small ones, you start creating something different. Maybe you leave work thirty minutes earlier one night a week. Maybe you stop answering non-urgent emails after a certain time. Maybe you protect one evening for your family. Maybe you schedule something you enjoy instead of assuming you'll find time for it later. Maybe you finally take that vacation you've been postponing. These may sound like small things. But small decisions repeated over time can change your life. And I want to give you a very simple exercise to try today. The next time you feel overwhelmed, stop. Take one breath. And ask yourself three questions: What am I thinking? What matters most right now? What is my next best step? That's it. You don't have to solve your entire life. You don't have to figure out your entire week. You don't have to get everything done. You just need to decide what matters most right now and take your next best step. I've actually created a free resource to help you do exactly this. It's called the 10-Minute Pressure Reset. I designed it to be something you can keep at your desk and use when you're feeling overwhelmed, pressured, frustrated, or stuck. It walks you through four simple steps: Pause and breathe. Identify your pressure thought. Reframe your thought. Take your next action step. And it's free. You can get it at FinancialAdventure.com. I'll put the link to this and other valuable resources for accountants and high-stress professionals where you’re listening to this podcast. I'd encourage you to download it even if you're not feeling overwhelmed today. Keep it at your desk. Because you don't need to wait until you're at your breaking point to change how you lead yourself. Now, before we finish today, I want to come back to something I said earlier. You don't have to do everything right now just because everything feels important. That's worth writing down. You don't have to answer every email right now. You don't have to solve every problem right now. You don't have to make everyone happy right now. You don't have to finish everything on your list right now. And you don't have to sacrifice your entire life every time work gets busy. There will be seasons when work demands more from you. There will be busy seasons. There will be difficult clients. There will be unexpected problems. Some days, things won't go according to plan. That's life. The goal isn't to create a life where nothing difficult ever happens. The goal is to become someone who knows how to lead yourself when difficult things happen. That's the difference. And that's what I mean when I talk about Leading Yourself Under Pressure. It's not about eliminating pressure. It's about changing how you lead yourself through it. So the next time you feel like everything is important, pause. Take a breath. Ask yourself: “What matters most right now?” Then choose your next best step. You may be surprised by how much more in control you feel when you stop trying to manage everything at once.
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