Tanya Semerad 0:00
This show is not for the faint of heart. If you're craving personal growth that goes beyond the surface level, then you're in the right place. Get ready to unlock your mind. Unleash your authenticity, ignite your purpose and passion and fortify your emotional resilience. Say goodbye to drum and distraction and hello to new potential. As a former lawyer and business leader turned certified High Performance Coach, I know what it takes to excel in life. I'm here to push you beyond your comfort zone, challenge your beliefs and spark a transformation that will revolutionize the way you work, have relationships and your well being. You've already taken the first step by being here. So buckle up, because we're about to go on this life changing journey together. Are you ready? Let's do this.
Hello, my friend, I'm so happy you're here because we're going to talk about how to reduce overwhelm. I'm going to give you not one but two tools that you can apply anywhere, anytime, day or night, whether your mid meeting, mid game or mid conversation, and they'll help you to release stress and re energize yourself. Overwhelmed sets sits in a pretty big pot, doesn't it? a melting pot, you might say there are many reasons that cause us to experience overwhelm. It's the workload, we've got the expectations put on us, the expectations we put on ourselves. It's the too many meetings, the back to back meetings is the emails, we never get down to zero. It's the relationship stuff that happens. It's the family dramas. I mean, the in laws are everywhere. It's fear and worry generally about ourselves. And we find ourselves going into the future somewhere and worrying about that or floating back into the past and trying to fix stuff that broke a long time ago. When we're overwhelmed, it's difficult to be our best, we can't unlock our potential we're so focused on surviving, we've got blinkers on, we're so far away from thriving from feeling the space that we need to do and be what we really want. So I'll share two core reasons for why we get overwhelmed. And just keep in mind, they can both happen at once, or they can happen individually to cause overwhelm. The first reason that we get overwhelmed is from a lack of clarity. In fact, the way I like to say is that we can expect to be overwhelmed when we don't have clarity. And I'm talking about clarity at work, and clarity. Personally, when we don't have clarity at work, we say yes to everything or yes man or woman or yes person at work. We don't know when to say no. And, or not now, because we're not clear on what really matters. We're not clear on where we're going to have the biggest impact in our roles. So we don't say no to anything, because we're afraid of missing out on something that's important. We're afraid to say no. So guess what your inbox is overflowing your meetings back to back and you're doing lots, but you might not have a lot of finished work to show for and the overwhelm. Oh, it's there. When you do have clarity at work, you're confident in how you handle requests and demands in conversations, you know exactly when to be flexible, and when not to be flexible. Because you're clear on what matters most you know what your non negotiables are, we need clarity to be productive to truly move that's predominant needle on the dashboard of work. We need that to be high impact. We need that clarity to contribute quality stuff, winning that clarity to be able to empower others having clarity, yes, it's about gaining it. But it's also about maintaining it. So not getting distracted by stuff, but also giving it to others. And if you work with other people slash are in a leadership role. It's required of you. You become better at delegating and getting budget for outsourcing when you're clear. And when you have this clarity and productivity, you feel busy, but you feel accomplished like you've earned rest and you take that rest without guilt or working on your holiday. If you don't have clarity in your role. You need to gain it you need to step up and have the right conversations with the right people and you need to create systems and processes that maintain that cloud already, and also have those scheduled checkpoints, milestones to discuss and reflect on what you're progressing on so far, what your team is progressing on so far. Now, let's think about clarity from a personal perspective, and how that can create overwhelm. Though I suspect, you already know that a lack of clarity can definitely create overwhelm in your hole and spill over into your whole life. But when you don't have clarity, personally, let's flesh it out now and get really clear on what could be creating overwhelm for you. So you might be unsure how what you're doing with your life is related to your purpose. You don't feel satisfied, you feel like something is missing. This is key here, when you're not clear on what you're supposed to be doing, why it's important to you, and how that looks for you and how you fit into that for the long term, you're going to wonder whether you're on the right path, it's difficult to know what the next steps are, let alone what the next chapter is, he can't write that because you don't know what's supposed to be in it. You don't know if what you're doing is leading up to that point, you don't know if everything you've done is a waste of time. So without personal clarity, you feel lost. Yes, you're unsure of the next steps, relationships become more difficult than they need to be. You create overwhelm by being unclear on what you want and why you want it. You're overthinking about whether you're with the right person, you're overwhelmed with how to go about improving your relationship with everything else you've got going on. That's the last thing on your mind. And you see them more as a stone in your shoe than the love of your life. You struggle with your in laws more, you rise to triggers easily. You lower yourself then to their petty level, because you're unsure of who the best of you is and how the best of you would respond in those situations. So what do you do you just react instead? Without personal clarity, you're unable to lock your potential as a parent, you open your mouth and your mom comes out the worst parts. Without personal clarity you don't unlock your potential as a person because you let bad habits sabotage you even if you think of it, Tanya, it's just you know, the extra coffee or the extra little potty thing I do on the weekend or the extra thing i'd extra movie or whatever it is. Even if you think it's only 1% or 10% of your week. Say in that overindulging watching telly gaming losing yourself in your phone watching videos. These small one percenters add up, they add up and then they take away from your life. That's a sneaky double subtraction situation because not only do the bad habits take away from your time, you'll never get that back. They also create an opportunity cost. So what if, instead of doing the bad habit, you did the good habit instead. And that's why high performers zoom past the average person rum, they're off. Because you're going in different directions, fast habits stack up. If you're thinking that you could do with more clarity check out episodes, excuse me, one to five on this show. They'll talk you through clear steps to getting clarity in yourself, in your relationships, in your dreams and goals. And in your habits. I call them clarity jewels, for reasons I'll tell you in those episodes over there, so give them a listen. There are also some bonus episodes for implementing your clarity. And I also give away matching reflection materials that you can download free of charge two.
I said I'd give you two reasons for why we get overwhelmed. The first was lack of clarity professionally or personally. And the second is a lack of energy management. You haven't been shown or you haven't prioritized learning how to manage your mental your physical energy, your emotional energy and your spiritual energy. That's right. We have four four of them four main areas of energy, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. So if you optimize only your mental and physical energy, then you're only ever going to be and feel at 50% of your potential. And you know it when it's like that you feel like something's missing. You feel like you've got more to give. Yes, mental energy is about focus, being able to concentrate and be present, not distracted. physical energy is about your ability to move your body get enough sleep and recovery so you're not tired or lethargic as you work your buns off proving yourself and providing for your family. No side note on physical energy. I have too strong but recommendations, I believe they should be part of every school curriculum curricula. Stuff People should know about their human being to truly optimize it, as opposed to just listening to old wives tales that get passed down in a super outdated or kind of the dusty science that we're being taught. Book number one, why we sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker. Book number two is breath. by James nest, all links are in the show notes. They are so spectacular and life changing. I may even debrief the books in a separate episode. They're that critical to your well being and unlocking your highest potential. So after mental and physical energy, we've got emotional energy. Now these aren't in any particular order. And before you think, Tanya, yeah, yeah, you're just an emotional person. I'm not an emotional person. Well, I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what label you put on people, you're still a person. And emotions are a part of your biology. Unless your name is Chad GPT. Or Siri, you have emotions, whether you like it or not, and fail to optimize your emotions, and you fail to make your best decisions. You fail to be a real leader, you fail at having a chance of connecting with anyone in any way that would lead them to listening to you. Emotions, and emotion management are required to be a person of influence, emotions, color, everything we say, everything we do, even how you walk emotions speak to other people. Before we do have you felt that before someone walks into a room Hello, whoa, what just happened? For the better or for worse. So when you don't manage your emotions, your emotions will manage you. I don't feel like it does that sound familiar? Or I understand it with my head. But it just doesn't feel like the right decision. These are all our emotions at play, affecting how we make decisions. So without check in on emotions, we also behave based on fear based on survival, not on the best that we can do, or the best result that we could have. And fear can be sniffed, sniffed, snare from a mile away. So fear say that you won't hit your target and you'll be a failure. That's the fear that many of us have week on week, month on month. And we act on this we act on this fear by compelling ourselves to make calls and emails and have conversations. But what happens when you act from fear? That emotion of fear? Will your conversations have a slightly desperate tone to them, don't they that either repelling that desperation is repelling prospect straightaway, or it's undercutting your confidence? Therefore cutting out profit margin, you'd rather cut that out just so you could get a client. And then we've got spiritual energy. And I've had a lot of people tell me, Tanya, I'm getting really bored with what I do. Or I just find it hard, really hard to do the mundane task, or, you know, I'll do it if I'm passionate. And I just think Da, like, I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons, and I was going up. No da, and dope was like a frequent saying on there, but da, of course, you won't do it. If it's mundane and low energy, you won't do it if you're not inspired, if you're not passionate about what you're doing. So what you have to do is get some clarity about what it is that gets you excited lights your fire, floats your boat, and change things up, change things up, Delegate outsource more. But if you really have to do it, do it like a high performer, high performers, we find a reason to lock it if it's a necessary evil, you could call it something we have to do in a job that we don't like it's so mundane and boring. We find some one worth fighting for. So that we finished that on time. doesn't follow us around like a lost dog, you know, making us feel guilty about not having tended to it earlier. So one thing that I like to say to myself is, you know what, I don't have to do anything. I don't have to do it. I get to do it. I get to do this task. I get to answer these emails. I get to run this errand. How lucky am I I can be doing far worse things and not being paid for it. So if you want to learn more about the four areas of energy, check out episode nine. The tools I'm going to show you now will tap into off areas of energy, optimizing and amplifying each area so that you're not so overwhelmed, you'll improve your focus and your presence, you'll elevate your mood and positivity, you'll raise your physical energy and you'll give yourself a real moment, a real moment in the day to check in to regain clarity and realign with the best of who you are, and not the reactive overwhelmed version of you. So tool number one is called the release meditation technique. And it's from the High Performance Institute that eye certified in tool number one will only require deep breathing, you don't need anything else. So wherever you are, close your eyes. As long as you're not driving or operating heavy machinery, you will close your eyes if it's safe public transport that's fine. On the bus, on the tube and on the train. Wherever you are close your eyes will only be for a minute, I've got a timer set. With your eyes closed. start breathing deeply. Breathing in and breathing out. Through breathing into your belly so it's expanding like a balloon breathing in your that balloon expanding your belly and breathing out. Keep going Breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in. As you breathe out, we're going to start to relax relax your jaw breathing in relax your tongue. Breathing in. Relax your eyelids. Breathing in and relax your hands. Breathing in relax your legs. Breathing in. Relax your toes. Breathing in. Relax your mind. And take a few more breaths. Breathing in. Breathe out stress. Breathing in. Breathe out tension. Breathing in. release tension. The deepest breath of your day so far.
My friend, you can open your eyes. How do you feel? How do you feel? Do you feel relaxed? Do you feel like you release tension Do you feel a little bit lighter. You might feel a little bit heavier. You might feel there's some stuff you got to sort out. If you're tired, you might feel that you want a nap. If that is you and you still have a lot of the day to go or another task to do or that activity to sink your teeth into. Then tool number two will help re energize you in 30 seconds. It is called Breath scaling the 32nd breath scaling exercise. Now, let me give you some context. You are a professional and professionals do professional things to manage their energy to manage their output. Yes. Just like a professional athlete, a professional athlete prepares before their game. They're warming up. They're doing their breathing. They're doing their visualization. They're doing stretching their single the things that they want to happen. Not seeing all the things they don't want to happen. They're connecting with their teammates, aka their family. They're making sure that they're all clear on what the strategy is what the game plan is. What I wonder, is how much preparation you're doing as a professional before you play the game of your life. Profession. We'll athletes might play for an hour, there might be for two hours or there abouts, you are playing a game that lasts anywhere from eight hours to 14 hours. So it is even more important. I would contend that you do preparation like an athlete would you are a professional after all. So if you're in public probably don't do this one, although you're most welcome to the house of people join you that if not listen through it and you'll be able to do it another time or just take a screenshot mark this moment in the podcast episodes that you can come back to it. Here we go. 30 seconds, what we're going to do is stand up. Okay, we're standing up. And we're going to bounce on our toes a little bit just to get the energy and the blood flowing. And we're going to start breathing really quickly doing 20 breaths while clapping and smiling in three to 120. Fast breaths. Here we go.
I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. How do you feel? I mean, I feel like I feel jazz, I feel like I've got bubbles in me, I've got a lot more energy. Because I've re oxygenated my blood, I've re oxygenated my brain, I've got more energy going, what literally what I had for lunch is being converted by the mitochondria to ATP. So I've got way more energy from the food I ate. It's not just feeling like it's a stone in my stomach. You can do these exercises in 90 seconds to release tension and re energize to reduce overwhelm. And you can do it anywhere, anytime. high performers use these tools in little pitstops little pitstops that they have throughout the day. For example, if you're at your desk all day, then do this every hour, just set a timer or every time you see the clock strike, or every time you feel like you need to look up and stand up you probably do. It's a sign that you need to stretch, do this activity used to a one and or use tool to release meditation, one minute breathing, and then 30 seconds fast breathing to re oxygenate and re Energize. That's why a high performance can go for so long, and still be good people, they can still be good people to those around them that despite them being busy, they don't use busy as an excuse to be rude or short or sharp or snappy. Another way that high performers use these pit stops is they use it in between activities and tasks. So they use a pit stop where they have a pit stop in between every task or activity as a transition a marker in the day that lets them to release what they've just done and reset for what they've got coming up. They take a pitstop, for example, from changing from email to going into a meeting that is a transition time they do a pitstop from being in a meeting to going to work alone again, that is a transition time that they do a pitstop in when they go from being alone to then go to the gym. They do a pitstop there too, they want to release the day and then psych up re energize for the gym, especially if the gym is at the end of the day. And then there's another pitstop isn't there, because there's a transition from being at the gym, to seeing the kids. You want to go from work mode down to work mode mom or work mode parent to being the parent of the kids dreams. And, dare I say there is another transition time from being with the kids and being the best parent you can be to being alone with your partner. Yes, you want to be your best partner, you want to show up with love and not with the burden of what you've had in your day. This is why using pitstops little 92nd stops in your day to release and reset, make you a better person, they reduce overwhelm. You don't feel crushed, and you know thinking into the future about all the things you need to do tomorrow morning and you're not present with your partner. So high performers, they're not rushing, they're not rushing through the day, it's not one big blur. They're taking these pitstops to release what just happened to re energize with the next task or activity and to realign with their highest values. So your high performance challenge should you wish to accept it is to follow in the footsteps of the world's highest performers. Some of you listening will simply decide that you will do it and you will and some of you will have high hopes for implementing it but in reality you think it's too much. So if you're thinking it's too much Your challenge is to start with three, three pitstops per day one mid morning and other around noon another mid afternoon. That makes sense, right? You'd normally make a coffee or tea or have a snack around about them, but because you might not trust yourself to remember to do them. The second part of your challenge is to schedule it in to schedule five minutes into your calendar at those specific times for you. So somewhere mid morning, somewhere around noon and somewhere mid afternoon. And listen to this habit recurring habit recurring daily, sometimes you'll ignore it. Other times you'll reap the rewards from doing it. But either way, you'll reduce overwhelm, you'll improve your focus and get more of that work life balance you're looking for. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you'd like to support my high performance made simple podcast, you'd really like my energy fire. Please share it with three awesome people. Maybe they're your friends, the people you work with, and your partner in life. To catch those from me. You can follow me on LinkedIn at Tanya Semerad or Instagram or Tiktok at Tanya underscore highperformance. I look forward to tuning in with you again soon. Ciao for now.
