On Being Overwhelmed

Originally published September 3, 2005

It's so easy to look at all we need to do and get overwhelmed. When I allow myself to do that, I get very irritable and can't think straight. I snap at my children, because I'm trying to figure out what to do and they're asking me questions! To keep from getting overwhelmed, first take one thing at a time. Do one job at a time. When that's finished, do another. Elisabeth Elliot says, when you don't know what to do, do the next thing. Secondly, once you get things in order, use routines to keep them that way. Will they stay that way all the time? Probably not, but if you have routines, it won't take long to get them back in order.

Here's what author John Steinbeck says about feeling overwhelmed:

"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred
pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do
it. This happens every time. Then gradually I write one page and
then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to
contemplate and I eliminate the possibility of ever finishing."

~~ John Steinbeck, Travels with Charlie