It’s just impossible to switch off

Your mind won’t stop thinking about work

You feel pulled towards your phone

You just have to check your email quickly

There never seems to be enough time

Everything takes too long

People don’t move fast enough

When things get busy your health is the first thing out the window

You stop exercising

You start eating more sugar

You mess up your sleep pattern

50% of CEOs report feelings of loneliness

60% of first time CEOs report loneliness to the degree that it negatively impact performance.

Not surprisingly really

Grabbing your phone on waking doesn’t guarantee overwhelm

But it is a common step on the path to overwhelm.

Over the years of working with leaders, founders and C level folks I’ve seen a bunch of things that seem to move them towards or away from overwhelm.

STOP telling people to JUST be consistent

It’s said by the exerciser who exercise daily

It’s said by the writer who writes daily

Trying to STOP thinking about work doesn’t work

Here’s what to do instead

If you’ve tried to stop thinking about work you…

3 Secrets Zen Business Leaders Know That Overwhelmed Business Leaders Don’t

Want them? Here they are… 👇🏻

1. Zen business leaders know

Discover how Jacob went from Overwhelmed B player leader to A player in less than 3 months

^^^ that’s a big thing in the start up community, often, you’ve either got it or you don’t and I get it.

Things move fast in the start up world and you have to be ready for that.

This is me…

I’m an entrepreneur at heart and always have been. That is to say learning has always been the result of the trial and error of trying to make something happen in the world more than studying to gain knowledge and becoming attached to that knowledge even when it doesn’t create the desired change.

I do not believe that hard work is the secret to success

In fact I believe that in many cases applied as the primary tool in the tool kit it leads to stress, poor health, overwhelm, and strained or broken relationships and without the promised success. (The definition of which surely must include freedom of time, health and great relationships.)

What red flags tell you things aren’t working?

That’s a question I ask myself every 6 months or so, life changes often so new answers emerge all the time.

Our brains are wired to take the most energy efficient path through life.

I can’t remember where I heard it,

but the best or rather most useful description I’ve heard as to what pain is, is that pain is the brain saying,

🛑 Stop doing it like that

We could start seeing overwhelm as a good thing…

We don’t of course.

We don’t because overwhelm comes with a negative prediction of the future.

The first sign of overwhelm is the realisation that what needs to be done can’t be done without sacrificing what you said was important to you.

That’s the inner conflict that causes the feeling of overwhelm.

I start the day with meditation 🧘‍♂️

You likely have a very different image in your mind to my reality of the dog whining for a walk, or one of the kids waking up and putting the tv on but it is what it is.

A Nervous System in THREAT has a bunch of indicators.

Of course you don’t need to have all of them but in my experience people tend to think they have a bunch of disconnected things.

You should rest more they say.

Read a book, sun bath, take up pottery, what ever, but Rest….

“l keep getting overwhelmed.”

That’s where it starts.

So I say…

Overwhelm effectively means, there are too many things I need to, have to, want to do and not enough time to do them in.

This is where Jacob was when we met.

He’d created a very cool business