Do you ever get that feeling "damn, I still have sooo much to do!"

[Chillax]

I'm not sure if it's healthy or what but a lot of times when I look at my life, I feel like I have so much further to go, I just don't see an end to anything anytime soon.

I'm 20, university student, live with parents, so maybe it is true.

Perhaps I just don't feel I've really gotten anywhere. I've seen other people around me give up or burnout but my closest friends are among the most succesful people I've seen at my age so maybe that's why I choose to set higher standards.

However, I always feel like I'm being crushed by my own expectations. Any thoughts?

[Liveformx64]

Originally Posted by Chillax

I'm not sure if it's healthy or what but a lot of times when I look at my life, I feel like I have so much further to go, I just don't see an end to anything anytime soon.

I'm 20, university student, live with parents, so maybe it is true.

Perhaps I just don't feel I've really gotten anywhere. I've seen other people around me give up or burnout but my closest friends are among the most succesful people I've seen at my age so maybe that's why I choose to set higher standards.

However, I always feel like I'm being crushed by my own expectations. Any thoughts?

high aspirations for yourself is a wonderful thing. But any negativity directed upon yourself is obviously not a good thing, and ultimately counterproductive.

If you are having a slow or unmotivated week take some quiet time and feel it out. Maybe it is a good idea to stop and smell the roses, and take some time to appreciate the here and now.

[Chillax]

The problem is more like too much motivation.

You ever get those nights where your mind is just racing with ideas? I feel like that all the time.

It's hard to describe :/

[QuestForBalance]

Here's my advice: Chillax... it'll work out.

I have those nights when my mind is racing non-stop all the time. I especially had them back when I was in college. Maybe you need to find something to focus your energy on. When I was a freshman, I learned how to fly. From that point on, I was hooked. If my mind was racing, it was racing with thoughts of flying... which I found thrilling.

Find something to look forward to; there's a ton of fun stuff out there.

[Kindred]

Give yourself time. Life isn't a race. I too have had many bouts of being a workaholic because I had so many goals and ideas, while often also suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Ease back your expectations and understand you can go at any pace you want. Life isn't the rat race that industrialized society makes it out to be. Take some time out for yourself and breath.

If your ideas are still pestering your mind, write them all out, find the one you want to realize the most, and only work on that. Being unfocused is inefficient and gets less done, so let your inner workaholic chew on that.

[emeadow]

I am finally learning to break my goals and ideas out into time segments....10 year goals, 5 year....1 year....30 days. Its not perfect, but I have my 'goal' list, I have a basic outline of what I need to do to accomplish to make those goals happen, and then I have a list of what I am working on at the immediate moment.

My current to do list functions mostly on a 30 day span....and when I create it, I make sure it aligns with my future longterm goals. Once I have created that list, when my mind starts to wander and race, I can tell myself that I have laid down the path, I just need to focus on the steps.

Example, a 10 year goal of mine is to live outside of the country for at minimum several months of the year (actually I hope for that to be sooner, but its on the 10 yr list for now). When I think of this goal it seems huge based on my current lifestyle, income source, ect, especially when lined up next to everything else I have on my goal list. But I have listed out what I need to do in the next several years to make this possible. Items like changing my income resource, getting my mortgage paid off, ect. I have broken these tasks out into yearly smaller goals, and right now I am using 30 day task schedules to meet those one year plans.

This month, I have a few goals in place that are geared towards my career change. So if I start to feel overwhelmed by all I have to do in the next few years, I just go 'wait, I have a plan, all I need to accomplish is my list of tasks for this 30 day...thats ALL I need to focus on'.

I think before I always felt like I was procrastinating when I tried to stop the busy mind.......I like having a plan, I am feeling much more relaxed. I can now put items out of my head and know that I am not 'putting it off', I am just focusing on the right thing at that moment.

[David Cain]

Here's a secret:

No matter how much you have to do, you only need to do one thing at a time. The problem is that you have 500 things in your head, so it seems like a lot of work. But by the end of the day, you will never have done any more than one thing at a time. Surely you can do one thing. When it's done, once again, you just do one thing. When that's done, you just do one thing.

It never has to get harder than than performing one tiny action. That's the secret to productivity: recognize that while you can think about 500 different things you have to do, all of those tasks will eventually be funneled into the one thing you can do in each given moment. And that's easy, if you keep your thoughts from making it look like you have 500 things to do at once.

There is a lot to gain from examining this idea. It's the most important thing I ever learned, and I wrote an article on this concept that you will probably find useful.

[bbdream8]

Originally Posted by Chillax

I'm not sure if it's healthy or what but a lot of times when I look at my life, I feel like I have so much further to go, I just don't see an end to anything anytime soon.

I'm 20, university student, live with parents, so maybe it is true.

Perhaps I just don't feel I've really gotten anywhere. I've seen other people around me give up or burnout but my closest friends are among the most succesful people I've seen at my age so maybe that's why I choose to set higher standards.

However, I always feel like I'm being crushed by my own expectations. Any thoughts?

Hi Chillax,

There will be times when we feel overwhelmed by tasks. This is the rule that I follow.

1. Remind myself to do one thing at a time.
2. Find the most important things that I need to do.
3. Do it.

Doing one thing (the important ones) at a time, it is less likely we will be overwhelmed.

To your success,
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger