Give yourself a (hand) break

Deep breath.

That is what I had to tell myself yesterday. Everything was just a bit too much. You know the days I am talking about. It's hard to pinpoint a reason why (though I have my suspicions) but it was very tough.

Side note: why do I always have something in my calendar every time I feel like I am at the end of myself? The number of times I have been hit with a sense of overwhelming dread and I am struggling through it, only to remember that I have engagement that night. I almost always continue with the engagement and am always glad I did, but it's a kick in the stomach when I am just holding on for dear life and then remember I need to be present later that day. Why can't anxiety check my calendar first?

My experience is not limited to me (well that is what I keep telling myself) and my conversations recently with some dear friends confirm my theory. A lot of people are struggling right now, and that is why I started this blog. Not to help people stop struggling, but to encourage them that this is a good thing.

If you are new to this blog, I must encourage you to read my first and third blogs (Struggles my old friend & Struggles Ugly Siblings). This explains the whole concept and also the difference between good and bad struggles. Do it now, I will wait.

Are they gone? Good. Can I just say to those who have already read all of my blogs, I appreciate you more than you know. If you get a chance, share one of these post with someone (you can click the button on the side) and we can get more amazing people like those who are currently reading the first and third blogs right now to catch up. They should be back soon.

Welcome back, we were just talking about you. You are awesome.

So we all know struggles are a good thing but we often make things way too hard for ourselves because we often confuse our circumstances with our performance. So when our circumstances cause our performance to slow down we think there is something wrong with us. This is insane, but I fall for this lie over and over again and it often leads to me feeling overwhelmed.

I had this revelation recently when I was chatting to one of my friends via text and he was telling me that it had been a tough week, and he was struggling to let himself slow down and give himself grace. This is a common symptom of a lot of high-performing people. They have the ability to do so many things they think there is something wrong with them when they can't achieve what they usually do.

Hearing this from my friend, something fun happened. I wrote back to him:

'Just because you have a super car that can comfortably drive 300 miles per hour doesn’t mean you should drive that fast when the road is full of bumps and bends.'

When the bump and bends in the road come, we need to give ourselves a (hand) break and slow down. The fact that you need to take a turn at 20 miles per hour has nothing to do with the ability of your car, but everything to do with the demand of the environment. No one will look down on you for slowing down, in fact, it's the opposite. When someone takes a 20 mile per hour turn at 100 miles per hour we see them as foolish and destined to crash one day.

Don't let that be you, slow down, give yourself a break and handle those twists and turns like the expert driver you are.