How to Conquer Overwhelming Feelings with Small Steps
Posted June 5, 2023 by Sarah Green
Categories: Featured, Sarah, Sister Post
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Mark Twain
I am overwhelmed as I consider the challenge I am invited into. I’ve always longed to run a marathon but it’s easier to keep the dream at bay. My friend knows I am capable. He tells me so. Yet, this is real and it’s a big deal. I don’t know this group of runners well, and I can think of a million reasons to avoid training alongside them.
My 25-year-old self in this scenario needed a mindset shift.
Overwhelming feelings wear many faces. It might be over the idea of running a marathon, starting a business, cleaning out a closet, or anything that we just can’t begin because we view it with eyes of enormity, and walk away.
Sadly, the effects of feeling overwhelmed can be self-sabotage disguised as normalcy, and is one of Satan’s greatest tools.
Sarah Green
I’ve spent an alarming amount of time suffering from feelings of overwhelm, which has caused procrastination, fear of risk, and dread. Sadly, the effects of feeling overwhelmed can be self-sabotage disguised as normalcy, and is one of Satan’s greatest tools. It is a cheap time stealer that claims and weighs down our lives.
Overwhelming feelings seem innocent enough. Perhaps we have too much on our plate. But what if we wake up feeling overwhelmed, whether we have a busy day or not? What if our minds speed immediately to a scenario of an overflowing to-do list? What if we never make ground on our to-do list because our thoughts are gushing with the inability to handle it all? What if feeling overwhelmed defaces our dreams because we just can’t start?
As a young eight-year-old girl, the trauma of my parent’s divorce paralyzed me. I moved across the country with my mom and sisters and only learned to cope.
If we only focus on the end goal, we will struggle to accomplish what is important to us.
Sarah Green
A mindset change seems too simple a step forward after a lifetime of feeling stuck.
Thankfully, I said yes to running my first marathon. What I learned in the process was sweeter than racing through the finish line.
- I learned that I can accomplish big things with tiny steps.
- I learned that I can break the stuck cycle with the tiniest movement forward in every area of my life.
- I learned that I can change my legacy this way.
That’s the way we run marathons. We don’t run 26.2 miles. We run one mile at a time. If we only focus on the end goal, we will struggle to accomplish what is important to us.
Overwhelming feelings that lead to procrastination, fear of risk, and defeat do not have to rule our lives. When feeling overwhelmed, we can, fight back by taking baby steps forward. I love Mark Twain’s quote at the beginning of this post about the secret of getting ahead is getting started. We can do that by breaking overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and start with the first one. It has rearranged my thought process and facilitated my steps forward.
What is your marathon? What dream has God placed on your heart that lingers in the dark like a child hiding in a closet?
It sounds too easy, I know. But baby steps work. It doesn’t matter where you have come from or how stuck you feel. God intends for us to start small and grow in big ways, even if it takes one baby step at a time.
My dream is to have a place where gun violence survivors can go and learn to heal in my city.After my 21 year old daughter was murdered on October 13,2009 I had no place to go no time to grieve. I was responsible for raising her 2 very little babies.So now I need to heal. I share her story about her life and death with other’s at our Capital Building.What I need to let go is my 7 year old relationship with a person who has been good to me at times but his alcoholism has a hold over him and his mental health lacks the help he needs to get the much needed help he needs to believe in his self to beat his addiction.I have been supportive of him when he does get help.I feel I have outgrown the things in our not so great relationship that I seem to work at the hardest at.We have love and entanglement.No communication,trust.I need to heal myself…How do I take those small steps?
Hi La Tonya,
So many hard things. I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ve had times in my life where good counsel has helped. I will certainly be praying for you as you take small steps. Sarah
Hello La Tonya, I read your post and my heart breaks for you and your daughter. I also know the pain of losing a child, my son. There is no greater pain that we will ever know. Please check out Compassionate Friends. It’s a group where parents who have lost a child come together online and in person. Also I can share that his addiction which is a disease, well I know that pain as well from dealing with numerous friends and family. I can say that also creates a sense of loss. And I find depending on the personality and readiness, giving an ultimate has worked the best to get them to get help. We can be supportive but we can’t do the work needed, they need to and we need to try and also care for us and out sanity. I am deeply sorry and I am
Sending thoughts of comfort and prayers of hope.
MARY