Bhavin Shukla

What is a word you feel that too many people use?

“I’m overwhelmed“, “it’s overwhelming“.

I’ve heard the phrase “overwhelmed” a lot recently.

Meaning

What does overwhelming mean?

It depends on the situation,

• It could suggest that too many things are happening at the same moment
• It is about the human CPU, the mind, running hot 🥵
• It is about being overloaded with work, i.e. having more work than one can handle.
• It refers to a circumstance in which a person believes he or she is fighting on multiple fronts.

Impact

Individuals who are overwhelmed may feel helpless, which can lead to despair. It might make someone feel so heavy and weighed down that they feel like they’re drowning or being drawn into a whirlpool

Overcoming Challenges

How can one avoid becoming overwhelmed?

The competitive environment of early schools and university days promotes in us the need to give more than 100% in whatever we do. We unnecessarily end up in catch-up mode and put pressure on ourselves by being perfectionists in everything we do. There is no need to win every battle, large or small. For example, in a recent speech at Dartmouth, Roger Federer stated that he has only won 53% of the total points he has played in his career, which is sufficient to put him first in the world.

A lack of prioritising might contribute to feelings of overwhelm. For example, which task should be prioritised:

• urgent and important,
• urgent but not important,
• important but not urgent, or
• not important and not urgent?

Most people choose to deal with Urgent and Important, thus they are continuously in a whack-a-mole situation. Instead, we should prioritise things that are important but not urgent. This will ensure that we never need to rush through our tasks i.e. we will never have any tasks that are urgent in nature. Also, we should never work on something that is not important and not urgent, but we spend a lot of time on things like these, such as WhatsApp university! I would suggest a great book named “Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less”, written by Greg McKeown.

We may feel overwhelmed when we are alone. A lack of support from family, friends, and colleagues might also contribute to this situation. It could be us, not them; we may not have requested the help we needed and may have thought that everyone is aware of the position we are in, or they may not completely comprehend the circumstances. I would recommend reaching out to people who are willing to listen to you, try to understand you, and can help boost your self-confidence.

There could be several more. The before mentioned points is not a tried-and-tested approach, but I believe it will benefit anyone going through the circumstance. The best option is to seek advice from the experts in this field.