Category: Overwhelm

Unfortunately, This is Something We All Do Poorly

Post author By cm_admin
Post date August 28, 2026

Since a great picture paints 1000’s words, I am going to keep this very short today.

I fortunately have a gifted friend who is SO GOOD as drawing simple images, with a comic book funky style, and delivering a VERY CLEAR message.

Today’s message is also inspired by a book I am reading – called Living Beyond The Mind: The End of Personal Suffering by Troy Valencia – which delves into the teachings of yoga, Buddhism and Hinduism (plus western psychology and neuroscience).

The book goes into a lot more depth.

But today I want to focus on just one distinction.

Reinforced by my friend (Leah Pearlman’s) beautiful and poignant picture and depiction below.

We, most likely, tend to worry way too much about things which never happen.

Hands up if that applies to you?

I was certainly a serial worrier in my younger years (less so now).

Which generally serves a useful purpose, if done for a minute or two (maximum).

Worrying longer than about 2-mins and the benefits start to drop, until you cross the neutral line, and then come into the realm of it being very, very UN-USEFUL.

So, feast your eyes on the 1,000 word message below (thanks Leah), and I will join you on the other side.

Choice Life Lessons Negative Emotions Overwhelm Stress

A Simple Thing That Costs You (A Lot) of Energy and Creativity

Post author By cm_admin
Post date August 4, 2026

One thing I think is very important in life is having loads of ENERGY.

I think we can all agree on that.

Which means, I am actively on the lookout for things that drain us of energy or cause us to have energy “leaks“.

Imagine if we start the day with 100% of energy credits.

But we “leak” 5% here.

And we “leak” 12% there.

Plus, we unknowingly “drain” 9% of energy in another place.

Essential that means – before we even get started in the day – we are only at 74% of our true energy potential.

So, it makes sense to plug leaks wherever we can.

The book I wrote called “18 Ways We Make Life WAY Harder Than It Needs To Be” is the perfect resource to identify where you might be leaking energy, spending too much energy, or getting a lower ROI from the energy you are spending.

In the book – which I wrote a couple of years ago – I did not include the energy leak we are focusing on today.

And as often happens, this leak was highlighted by a recent conversation with a Coaching client.

So this article is dedicated to JB.

Hopefully we can learn from their “mistakes”.

Here we go.

consciousness Emotional Negative Emotions Overwhelm Stress

The Best Stress Management Tool In My Bag of Tricks

Post author By cm_admin
Post date June 9, 2026

There are a few very valid reasons why this tool is one of my favourite, and most effective.

They include:

It is really easy to learn (we are talking 5-10 mins and for ages 6+).
It is FREE.
It goes everywhere with you, all the time.
There are no props required.
It is really simple to do.

But most of all…IT WORKS!!!

Imagine a stress management tool like that.

Learning it and using it would have to be a “no-brainer”.

Well, it is for me.

consciousness Decision Making Growth Life Lessons Overwhelm Perspective Stress Success

Mental Pushing And Pulling – Thanks To Our Biology

Post author By cm_admin
Post date May 17, 2024

Where to start?

How about with the name of the book I just finished reading, which shared pretty interesting insights. The book was called: ‘Why You’re Unhappy’ by Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD.

I didn’t agree with everything she presented, but because she has a background in anthropology as well as psychology, it brought a nice perspective to her discussion on biology.

And the influence on our feelings and behaviours.

She spoke a lot about the individual roles of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins and cortisol; and how they are primarily used for survival (and reproduction of genes), as with all mammals.

I have talked before about the ‘mid’ brain, also called the limbic brain or mammalian brain.

It has a number of functions including regulation and generation of our emotions, which obviously affects us moment-to-moment and day-to-day.

I found a few things in this book especially fascinating.

Particularly the author’s overarching message.

We are not – biologically – designed to be ‘happy’ all the time.

It is not only okay, but “normal” to feel our emotions go up and go down throughout our day and life in general.

I think that is a great point.

If we EXPECT to be happy, all the time, or think there is something “wrong” with us if we aren’t, then we may be fighting reality.

What I also found fascinating was…

Choice Decision Making Emotional Goal Setting Tips Overwhelm Success

The 1, 2, 3 to Getting More Clarity

Post author By cm_admin
Post date April 9, 2024
1 Comment on The 1, 2, 3 to Getting More Clarity

The title may be a little misleading.

I was actually not thinking of step 1, step 2, and step 3.

But rather, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3, when it comes to getting more CLARITY.

And in this case, the levels also refer to the size of the ‘problem’ or issues, or the size of the consequences of the decisions you have to make.

Let’s think of it like this:

Level 1 – A problem or decision to solve or figure out, but that is not too big or high in consequences.

Level 2 – The problem or decisions is a bigger, or more complex, and has more consequences if you “F” it up.

Level 3 – This is where the decisions you are making are complex, there numerous overlapping parts, and possibly a shortage of resources, so you need to be extra creative, plus the consequences of “F’ing it up” are pretty high (and potentially a huge pain in the butt and maybe even a potential financial loss).

So I see that these three levels of “challenge” require three different ENVIRONMENTS to enhance the probability of me solving it to the best of my ability.

I also like to use the metaphor of ‘stepping back’.

Level 1 = small step back.

Level 2 = medium size step backwards.

Level 3 = a big step backwards to allow the greatest level of perspective.

Choice Decision Making Emotional Overwhelm Problem

An Awesome Problem-Solving Tool

Post author By cm_admin
Post date March 19, 2024

Firstly, the ESP is not (exactly) extra sensory perception, though perhaps there is some of that still going on.

Secondly, it is thanks to a client conversation the other day for the creation of this tool.

Or more, the synthesizing of a few different tools into one.

The idea came after seeing the usual pattern when we have a PROBLEM show up in our lives.

The usual flow looks like this:

Problem > Trigger > REACTION > Emotional Explosion (big or small) > Trying to solve problem > OUTCOME

One of the major downsides of this is the OUTCOME.

Which is actually the most important bit.

Usually the outcome – using this pathway – is that it “might” be okay in the short-term, but is very unlikely to be useful or appropriate over the long-term.

The reason is that when we are in a survival emotional state (which this sets up), we have limited access to the frontal cortex of our brain, which is where we ENVISION (realistic) future consequences of our choices.

We are in short-term survival mode.

Not ‘making-choices-to-shape-your-greatest-destiny’ mode.

So we need to INTERRUPT the pattern.

This is where our ESP Tool comes in.

consciousness Decision Making Life Lessons Overwhelm Perspective

How to Stay Up-to-date Globally Without Losing Your Mind

Post author By cm_admin
Post date January 23, 2024

The other day I was in conversation with friends, and we were talking about ‘world affairs’.

But the most interesting part of that conversation – for me – is how do we stay informed, without being consumed by a whole bunch of ‘bad news’?

And what do we mean being informed?

Is it informed for interest sake?

Is it informed, so we can make informed decisions in our own lives?

Is it informed so we can sound like we know what’s going on in the world to impress our friends?

And how informed do we need to be?

Lots of questions, and playing around in them can make your head spin.

So in this article I want to give you my thoughts and perspective on how to stay informed, to what level, and in a way that is beneficial for you and your lifestyle generation, plus in a way that you don’t lose your sanity, or sense of life being something precious.

Choice Doubt Emotional Feeling Negative Emotions Overwhelm Perspective

How to Deal with Overwhelm

Post author By cm_admin
Post date October 24, 2023

ANOTHER EFFECTIVE WAY TO DEAL WITH GREATER LEVELS OF OVERWHELM.

In the past I have spoken about different ways to deal with stress and OVERWHELM.

And I am sure it (overwhelm) is a topic you can also relate to.

It is not whether we will experience overwhelm or not.

It is about ‘when’, and then HOW WE DEAL WITH IT.

That is where I will take you.

I am personally feeling overwhelmed about now.

But it is not the minor daily stuff, but the “WTF do I do next?!” sort of stuff.

My Morning Rituals and Weekly Meeting with Me Inc do a great job most of the time, but if stuff builds up, or there are new factors, our ability to cope can reach overflow.

That is what today’s strategy is dealing with.

For me, the overwhelm is the result of: selling our house, building a new house (in a foreign country), doing the money juggling act, managing my current coaching clients (and new clients), helping my first-time authors finish their books, getting coaching programs organised for 2024 (because this year is whizzing by), plus finishing my book and associated parts, then publishing and launching it on 20 November. And a couple of weeks ago I made the decision to have our sausage dog of 16-years put down.

So a bunch of stuff going on, but maybe the book launch is the thing that is probably pushing me over the line, since it is a significant project.

So what to do????

Essentially I need to figure some shit out.

Organise the jigsaw pieces.

But how best to do that…??

Belief Choice Doubt Fear Feeling Growth Life Lessons Overwhelm

This Can Break The Dam Wall of Worry

Post author By cm_admin
Post date October 10, 2023

This article is for anyone that does, or is currently doing, the WORRY thing.

It’s a story about what I recently did (about 30 mins before writing) to break the dam of worry that had been looming over me for days.

If you read last weeks post, I spoke about getting triggered putting up ‘For Sale’ signs around my neighborhood, as we are in the process of selling our house in Bali (while doing a build at the same time).

So I am juggling a few balls in the air.

Which I am sure that you can relate to.

I am 100% sure.

Rarely have we got all of our ducks lined up so we can kick back with our feet up, and be in blissful rapture.

The price of wanting to live an extraordinary life is there will be a bit of resistance, disruption, set-back and frustration.

It’s the ticket price to play life at the next level.

So I know that you know what I am talking about.

Life can get pretty overwhelming at times.

And then we can do this worry thing.

Which I like to thank my mum for teaching me.

She taught me well.

Just joking mum!!

(Sort of).

So that takes me to one of my main points of today’s ‘lessons’.

Drum roll please maestro…

Decision Making Emotional Feeling Negative Emotions Overwhelm Problem

Don’t Let This Derail You from Your Goals

Post author By cm_admin
Post date September 6, 2023

Goals. Goals. Goals.

We all have them, because worthy Goals give meaning to our life.

Without worthy Goals we stagnate, don’t experience fulfillment and spend our waking hours on a mindless hamster wheel.

Therefore we want to know what processes help us kick those Goals we have our beady eyes on.

And derail us.

Are you ready to hear about one of the places where people screw it up?

Let’s dive in.