What’s On Your Front Burner?

At any give time all of us have:  projects, goals, desires, wants, needs and future plans on our burners of our life stove.  What I find interesting is we have these items in every one of our life areas.  If you will recall I work with my clients on a basis of each of us has about 12 life areas that our live revolve around.  Let’s just for the sake of discussion in this post say you have several items (say 6) you are currently working on.  You do the math.  Twelve life areas times six projects, goals, desires, wants, needs etc. and you have 72 things at any given time you r working on.  When you combine these 72 items to the couple (let’s say 2) challenges, or problems you are working on in each of your twelve life areas, you are now working on 96 items.

Think about that!   Is it any wonder  you feel tired, fragmented and going around and around in a circle?

Now, I grant you not everyone will have 96 items.   Nor will these be on your front burner at the same time, however, I can assure you, you are subconsciously working on them all the time.

So, what is your capacity to function, plan, act on, live and succeed on those 96?  You probably never viewed your life from this perspective before.

Below are some common statements, I hear often.  Which ones do you resonate with?

“…I don’t have enough time…There aren’t enough hours in the day….I’m stressed….I’m just so tired….There is no end in sight…I can’t do it all….I wake up exhausted….I need more sleep…” and a million other common phrases we have all uttered.  Each one is valid and true to the person who believes it.

You know your brain can only feel one sensation at a time and can only work on one task at a time and do that one task well.  There is no such thing as a good multitasker.  You can say it all you want, but if we were to record what you are doing and how well you are doing it, the tape would tell a different story than the one you tell yourself.    If you will permit me a story of how I learned this one with one of my children.

As we all know in the 3rd grade, we learn our multiplication tables and one of the ways we learn to quickly get an answer is to do a multiplication timed test.  You remember those?    Our youngest would come home clenching her teeth, have a bad jaw and head ache.   I took her to her pediatric dentist.  He took a common water cup which was frozen with a small amount of water and had her rub it across the area where she was feeling the pain.  Immediately the pain went away.  Do you know why?

The brain can only send one signal.  It prefers the signal which is not “pain”, in this case rather a “cold” signal went deep into her brain and caused an interruption of the pain.  If you have ever suffered from migraines you will know this trick.

This is also true in your life of those 96+ items you are spinning in the air every day.  Are you following?

Each of us needs to prioritize, follow through and disconnect in an organized manner.  When we don’t do this we get into a vicious cycle which quickly becomes a downward spiral.

Next time we will discuss what to do.

 

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