Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes:                 This is episode number 685, on How To Manage Anxiety, Burnout, And Overwhelm.

Welcome to The School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now, let the class begin.

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” – Colin Powell.

I love this quote because, in order for our dreams to manifest and come to reality, to take an idea in our mind and make it possible in the physical world, it takes a lot of sweat, determination, and hard work. It doesn’t just happen magically because you think about it, it takes consistency over years.

But when that consistency over years piles up into anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm, how do we manage it all so that it doesn’t kill us from our dreams, so it doesn’t rob us of our joy and our happiness?

I’m going to be talking about a number of key lessons that I’ve learned over the years and, more specifically, how I’ve applied them recently, with a number of major things happening in my life, to make sure I don’t have anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm.

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A big thank you, again, to our sponsors. Now, let’s dive into this!

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Now, where do I begin, guys? It’s all about the dreams we have and what we want to manifest in the world. And if we’re looking to get a raise, if we’re looking to earn more money on the side, if we’re starting a new relationship, if we’re travelling a lot and we’ve got a lot of projects and workload on our table, or if a lot of things start to manifest at the same time, it can feel extremely overwhelming, you can feel a lot of anxiety, you can feel overworked, like you don’t have enough time in the day to get it all done.

Have you ever felt that way where you didn’t have enough time in the day, and each day you felt behind, and behind, and e-mail packing up and work packing up, and all this stress and overwhelm? Well, I want to give you a solution on how to eliminate that in your life, and set yourself up for when the big moments happen in life, that you’re set up so you don’t stress and burn out.

Now, here’s the thing: Currently in this moment, I am in the middle of launching a talk show, Inspiring Life With Lewis Howes, right? It’s in the middle of it’s launch, it’s doing amazing, feedback’s incredible, but it’s a lot more work than I actually expected.

I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but, I mean, I’ve been 24/7, three to four days a week, promoting it, making sure the message is getting out there, getting my team involved in replying to all the comments, sharing on all the big pages; using my partnerships, my relationships; getting creative with contests; doing lives; doing whatever I can to show up to make sure the show is a success.

I’ve got a documentary that I’ve just finished filming, that we’re in the editing phase. We’re looking to sell that. I’ve got my podcast, which I’m doing three, four, five, sometimes six interviews a week to release them out three times a week. It’s a lot of energy back and forth.

Research, interviewing, scheduling, coming up with the copy, doing the marketing, creating everything with my team, to make sure it gets sent out there. I’ve got a new book that I’m already starting to work on, and thinking about, that I could, potentially, have come out about the same time as the documentary, that could be companion.

I’ve got a bunch of big keynote speeches coming up, where people are paying 50 grand plus, to have me come speak, and so I’m spending more time diving in to preparing, to researching, to breaking down my speeches and reverse engineering them, to make sure that I have the best possible keynote that I can have.

I’m working with coaches and flying around the country. I’m meeting with people, spending a couple of days, training on it. I’m doing team building, growth, managing team, going over lots of different sponsorships and opportunities that are coming my way. We’re creating new video production while I’m doing more video interviews, and creating more viral videos.

We’re doing so many different projects that are exciting! I’m doing a monthly Mastermind, where every month I meet with my seven-figure-earning entrepreneurs in The Greatness Mastermind; I’m coaching them. I’m doing monthly trainings with my Inner Circle, where we have 2,500 plus entrepreneurs around the world, who are learning monthly from me there.

We’ve got so much going on. How do I get it all done, without feeling like it’s going to suffer? Without feeling like I’m stressed out, and don’t have time for myself? That’s not including the hundreds of messages on Instagram DM, on social media, Twitter and Facebook, and hundreds of e-mails daily, plus dozens and dozens of text conversations that I get on my phone every single day that are back and forth.

Plus ten, twenty phone calls a day from people. From entertainment lawyers, from executives, from brand partners, from sponsors, from just friends and family. How do I manage it all and how do you manage it all?

You might have an even bigger workload. You might have kids, you might have other responsibilities, you might have three jobs. Whatever it is you have, I understand that there are seasons of our life that can be more overwhelming than others.

And at this season of my life, there just happens to be a lot going on. And I want to break this down, and be very clear that these are all things that I’ve dreamed about. These are all things that I care deeply about, and, for whatever reason, the timing has lined up to where it’s all happening at the same time.

Which is great, but it also has it’s challenges. And I’ve learned before, through burnout, and overwhelm, and anxiety, some simple strategies, and techniques, and tools, that you can put into practice, so that, whether you have more on your plate than I do, or less, but you feel just as overwhelmed, you can manage this and navigate it without being exhausted.

Without having to drink ten cups of coffee a day, without having to constantly have sugar to try to feel like you have energy, without hurting your health, and without hurting your relationships.

So, the first thing is this – and I want you to take notes, if you’re not driving; I want you to take mental notes, but if you’re sitting down or you’re doing something, start taking notes on your phone – and take a screenshot and send it to me on Instagram of the point that you appreciate the most, that adds the most value to your life.

Because I want this to be very valuable for you. The first point is to reconnect to your ‘why’. Now, reconnecting to your ‘why’ is key. Because if you feel stressed, anxious, overwhelmed or burned out, you’ve got to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this in the first place? Why am I chasing all these projects?” or, “Why am I working in this place?” or, “Why am I taking this on, if all it’s going to do is stress me out?”

If these are your dreams, you’re going to have to work hard, you’re going to have to be consistent, but it shouldn’t stress you out to the point of overwhelm. So, ask yourself this: “Why am I doing what I’m doing? What is my vision and my mission? And what is this all for?”

If you can’t answer that, and have a good answer to, “Why am I doing this? What’s the vision and mission for my life, for why I’m doing this, and what’s it all for?” If it’s for superficial things, then you’re going to burn out.

If there’s a deeper impact, “Because it’s going to help me get out of a dark place. Because it’s going to support my family. Because it’s going to impact other people. Because I’m going to find more joy by doing the things that I love.”

Whatever it is, it’s got to be something more meaningful than, “Because it’s going to make me a lot of money. Because it’s going to make me look good with other people. Because I’m going to get some accomplishment, and that’s going to fill me up.” That is going to create overwhelming pressure.

You don’t need the pressure and, in fact, stress is only going to hurt you, if it’s that inner stress of negativity. Pressure and build-up of moments of pressure is okay, but the stress around it is not okay. You’ve got to ask yourself this as well, “Is it still making me happy, and part of my long term legacy?”

Is it still making me happy, and a part of my long term legacy? If this is not bringing you joy, or not building something for a bigger legacy for you, then you’ve got to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? What can I cut out of my life that I don’t need to do?”

Or is it all just busy work, to fit in and feel productive? If that’s the case, you’re going to be running on a hamster wheel, over and over, my friend, and you’re going to never get off, and you’re going to be tired and dead.

It’s time to ask yourself these questions and reconnect to your ‘why’. That is phase one.

Now, phase two. This is powerful! You’ve got to create three to five daily anchors that keep you grounded in your life. Now, what are these anchors? Here’s some examples: A wake-up time and a sleep time that is non-negotiable. Non-negotiable wake-up and sleep times.

This may sound silly, but I’m telling you, when you know what time you’re waking up, you know what time you’re going to bed at the latest, then you fit the rest of the time in the day accordingly, and you can schedule and plan out your day.

If you say to yourself, “Well, I just have to stay up and finish this,” you’re not going to be as productive, you’re not going to get your sleep, you’re not going to be healthy, it’s going to affect you long term, and you’ll never get out of that rat-race mentality.

So create a wake-up time and sleep time for yourself. I wake up no later than 06:30. It’s usually 06:00 or 05:45 and that’s the first thing, it’s creating a deadline to wake up by. And also a time that I won’t go to be later than. I try to go to bed by eleven, ten thirty is great, but my non-negotiable time is midnight, and that’s what we try to focus on.

At least I get a minimum of six and a half hours. Ideally I want seven and a half to eight, but if I get six and a half, I know, at least I’m not setting myself up for burnout. That’s when you start getting five and four and a half, consistently, when you’re already over-stressed, your body just can’t keep it up for long.

Number two: a daily workout. I cannot emphasise the power of taking care of yourself first thing in the morning. I like to do it first thing in the morning, because if I work out and I do a couple of other things in the first couple of hours in my day, even if I don’t do anything else productive in that day, at least I know I took care of of my life.

I took care of the responsibility that I have to myself to try to extend my life and stay healthy, so that I don’t have to fix my life later. Now, I can’t control certain things that might happen to my health in the future, or if I got injured or something like that, but at least the peace of mind, knowing that I did my step and my duty that day, to my wellbeing.

It’s a way of saying, in a weird way, that I love myself, I love myself enough to take care of myself, I love myself enough to work out, to push my body, to expand my muscles, to expand my lungs and my breathing capacity, to flush out any toxic energy, or any bad cells. To expand my capacity for mental growth, and I care enough about myself to give myself that time. A daily workout, I like to do it first thing in the morning.

Number three anchor: Make your bed. Again, another thing that you can do that says, “I care. I am good enough. I’m good enough to spend one minute of my life, to create a clean space to where I spend a third of my life.”

Think about it, guys, you spend a third of your life in bed. If you don’t have one minute to make that bed, then you’re saying you don’t respect yourself, and you don’t respect your sleep. So, why should you deserve to get good sleep, if you don’t respect it? It adds other benefits to building confidence, to seeing a task completed early in the morning.

There is research done, that the Navy SEALS have done, the military do this, for building productivity throughout the day. If you want to build momentum, start with an early wake-up, a workout and making your bed.

Another anchor that you can add in, if you want to. Again, choose three to five. You don’t have to do all these, I’m just going to give examples. The next one, the fourth one, is meditate. Meditate or prayer, or quiet reflection time.

And you may be saying to yourself, “Well, Lewis, I’m already overwhelmed, overworked, and dealing with anxiety and burnout. I don’t have time to meditate, I don’t have time to work out, I don’t have time to make my bed.”

I’m telling you, if you don’t make the time, it’s going to burn you out more. This is what’s worked for me, especially over the last couple of years, so that I haven’t burned out, so that I can actually feel at peace when there’s pressure. So that I can actually feel at peace with myself knowing, “I’ve done everything I can today, it’s time to sleep,” and have energy to go hard the next day.

Because, again, your dreams don’t happen without working hard. Number five: Clean eating. You know, I’ll be honest about this one. This is not my favourite one, because I love my sweets, I love candy. I mean, I can munch! My friends who know me know that I am the biggest muncher that’s on all things sugary; sweets, cakes, brownies, cupcakes, oh, my gosh, Sprinkles cupcakes, I could devour, like, six of them.

A box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, forget about it, it’s mine! I own them! Get in my belly! Right? That’s how I feel every time I see a bucket of gelato. I just want to swim in it and swallow gelato and just enjoy my life and be happy, right? That’s what I feel like.

But if I know that doesn’t extend my life, there’s two things that can extend my life. Plant based, a majority of eating plant based whole foods and working out. Those two things have been proven to extend your lifespan.

And there’s lots of other things that you can do, but be mindful of portion control. Again, I say this to myself, the most, because I could have multiple meals over and over again and not be full. Be mindful of eating whole foods, and just eliminating negative stuff. Add more positive stuff to your plate, and just have a little bit less of the negative stuff.

Still enjoy your life; you can eat sugar here and there and have a piece of chocolate here and there, and some ice-cream, but just be mindful. I’m not trying to tell you to have the most strict diet, because it’s not accessible for everyone.

I go through a lot of phases where I focus on, what’s the right choice, what’s the best choice in this moment? And just creating that structure for myself. So, that’s clean eating, I’m telling you, having an anchor of that will be powerful, because you’ll be grateful that you took care of yourself. You won’t regret it.

You know those times when you have a bucket of ice-cream? Or seventeen brownies? And you go, “Why in the heck did I do that?” an hour later. Or maybe, some of you, ten minutes later. But, “Why the heck did I do that?” and you feel kind of guilty and shameful. And then you just want to eat more, because you feel bad and you want to make it feel better.

That is not a good cycle. So break that cycle and make the right choices.

Number six: A daily anchor is walking outside. Whenever I feel overwhelmed or stressed, it’s usually because I’m on the computer, or on my phone too long, just staring at a screen. You’ve got to move your body, get in nature, and leave your phone at home.

I’m telling you, leave your phone at home, go walk, a ten minute, twenty minute walk a couple of times a day, get outside, allow yourself to just clear your mind for a moment. If you’re going non-stop, hard all day on so many projects, clear your mind, clear your body, give yourself ten, twenty minute breaks throughout the day.

Number seven: This sounds simple, but I feel like so many people forget this. Get sunshine. Joy and happiness comes from sitting in the sun for ten minutes. You just start to feel better. Your body is getting recharged, it’s like a battery, right? Your skin enjoys the vitamin D, your body starts to sweat a little bit, it’s moving, it’s thanking you, it’s soaking up energy!

You need the energy when you’re exhausted or experiencing anxiety. The sunshine ten, twenty minutes a day. Again, put sunscreen on, but be in the sun, it’s going to feel better and recharge you.

Number eight: Connect with a friend. You know, human connection has been studied for years, it’s the thing we crave the most. It’s the thing that gives us meaning and purpose in our lives when we talk to people and be around people and physical touch and hugging people.

Go hug a few people a day, friends, family, loved ones, and connect, have conversations. Don’t just stress, talk about other things.

Number nine: Do something you love every day. Again, this can be ten, twenty, thirty minutes. Do something you love. Do something that fills you up. Play! Play games, play board games, play cards, play basketball, sports, dance, sing, play music, do something fun! This is about enjoying your life as well!

And these are just some of the anchors. There’s lots of other anchors that you can think about, and I’d love for you to send me an anchor. Send me a message on Instagram, DM – even though I get hundreds a day, I try to reply to everyone – and tell me what your anchor is. I would love to hear that.

So that is phase two, create daily anchors. And those are some of mine. Some of those I do more than others, but those are ten or eleven anchors that you can do that will really support you guys. It’s going to help so much, when you do some of these anchors.

Now, imagine if you have zero anchors. If you just wake up, get on your phone, start working, don’t take care of yourself and go in the rat-race, and go on the little hamster wheel. There’s no anchor to ground you, and you will burn out, you will be exhausted and you’ll constantly say, “I’m overworked! I’m overwhelmed! I have too much stress! There’s too much pressure! Aahh!”

Well, are you taking care of yourself? Do you even have one anchor? If you don’t, then it’s going to happen more an more and you’re not going to be able to get off that hamster wheel.

So, phase three: Reflect and celebrate daily and weekly. Now, every night, even if I had a horrible day, or stressed out, or too much happening, I reflect on three things I’m grateful for, and I celebrate those things. Now, I’ll tell you what, there are some nights where I don’t want to say what those things are, because I didn’t have a good day, and I just feel so tired, I just want to sleep.

But, when I focus on gratitude at night, and I take thirty seconds to say, “You know what? Gosh, I feel so stressed and overwhelmed, but I feel so grateful for that workout this morning. Because it gave me energy. I’m so grateful I got on the phone with my mom and got to reconnect. I’m just so grateful for eating good food. I have the ability to eat food, when so many people in the world don’t.”

When we have perspective of our life, it anchors us, again, before we go to sleep. And by going to sleep anchored, we are able to actually pass out better, have a better night’s rest, wake up more refreshed.

So, I do this nightly, and then, every Friday or Saturday, or whatever you want to call the end of your week, do something with no phone, outside, or something you love where you aren’t tied to checking e-mail or social media.

I’m telling you, this is a game changer. We are too addicted to our phones and too addicted to social media, and it’s starting to kill us. Starting to kill us emotionally, spiritually, sexually, everything. So, do something every Friday or Saturday where you don’t take your phone with you, you go outside, or you do something you love and you celebrate the week.

I’m telling you, when you learn to appreciate and acknowledge and celebrate yourself, you realise that, “Yes, I am working hard, I am busting my butt, and I have a lot of great things happening right now, and I also get to appreciate the journey.”

It’s not all about the end result and the destination. I get to appreciate the daily journey, the weekly journey, et cetera. And by focusing your attention on appreciation, and celebration, it’s not saying, like, “Oh! I’ve done all the work, and now I can just stop, and stop being consistent and working hard.”

No! You’ve still got to bust your butt, you’ve still got to work hard, you’ve still got to execute, because that’s what dreams require if you want them to happen. But you’re also going to enjoy and appreciate who you are, how hard you’ve worked, what you’ve manifested and created in your life.

You’ve come so far in your life, I want you to know that. You have come so far in your life, to get to where you’re at, right now. You get to acknowledge it. You get to celebrate yourself, you get to take some appreciation and love yourself.

Because if you don’t, what’s the point of this life? Just to run yourself into the ground, until you die, and then you’re in the ground? And then what? You don’t get to celebrate it? No! Enjoy the ride! Appreciate the challenge, appreciate the good things that are happening, appreciate that you are overwhelmed. At least you have something to be overwhelmed about!

Most people are struggling and don’t have a job and don’t have opportunities. You have opportunities. So, start appreciating, and start enjoying it. And create a structure to manage it.

And that takes me to the fourth phase: Talk about it and let it out. Now, some people never talk about how stressed and overwhelmed they are and it just builds up more and more inside of them. So, find someone you trust to talk about it. Once a week or once a day, or whenever you need to, because holding it in, never helps.

Sharing your feelings, expressions, always allows it to pass through and feel a better sense of connection with someone about it, right? I don’t think you should be constantly putting all this negativity on one person, that’s not what I’m saying, but talking about it, talking through challenges, allowing to get feedback and support will support you.

Understand that things come and go in seasons of your life. Being grateful for all you have in your life, that will allow for things to run more smoothly. So many people, again, would love to be in your position, so be grateful for the position you’re in, and manage it accordingly.

Now, these are just four different phases: reconnect to your ‘why’; create three to five daily anchors, the more anchors, the better; reflect and celebrate daily, or nightly, and weekly; and make sure you talk about it and let it out.

If you’re feeling it, talk about it, but don’t talk about it to create a weight or burden on someone else. Talk about it in a way that’s healthy and respectful as well. But you just constantly yapping at someone about, “How overworked I am!” because, “Lewis said talk about it. Lewis said to talk about how overworked I am!”

That’s not a good thing. I’m not saying to be frantically stressing someone else out, because you’re not helping them, when you stress someone else out. But create a structure and an environment, where you say, “Hey I just want to talk for five minutes to kind of let this out.” Or, hire a therapist, hire a professional, a coach, where it’s not a burden, it’s their job. That’s fine, too.

But don’t just put all your stress on your partner and expect them to lift you up constantly, when, how are you lifting them up? How are you supporting them? Or are you always the burden in the relationship? Are you always the taker, the energy sucker? Is that who you are? And is that what you want to be remembered for?

“Hi, I am remembered for the person who always sucked the energy out of the room.” No! That’s a horrible legacy! Instead, be the person that was chasing their dreams; lifting others up; coming from joy and passion; living an inspiring life, doing meaningful work that they appreciated; was always kind to others, even when they were stressed.

Be that person! That’s an inspiring person to be remembered. That’s a person that everyone wants to be around. That’s the person that people want to help out, even if they’re feeling anxious, burnout and overwhelm.

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If you enjoyed this, share with your friends. I think so many people are feeling this overwhelm in their life right now, and I hope these four phases of managing anxiety, burnout and overwhelm, were helpful for you.

Again, if this is helpful, lewishowes.com/685, you can tag me on Instagram, @LewisHowes, add me there, add me on Twitter, follow the new talk show, Inspiring Life With Lewis Howes. We’re trying to get that shared out in a big, big way. I’d love to have your support there. If you’ve liked the page, follow the page and share the most recent episode.

And know that you matter. You’re an important human being in this world. You are loved, you are accepted, and I believe in you.

I appreciate you guys so very much, it’s always a pleasure to be able to share solo rounds. You guys continue to ask for more and more of these, so I appreciate you reaching out and wanting to hear more from me, because I love to interview people and learn from the greatest in the world, but I feel like there’s so much I’ve learned that I’ve applied, that I never share.

And every time I do a solo round, I realise, “Man! I just feel like this stuff is second nature,” like I just feel like everyone understands this. But I realise a lot of people can even just use one little take away and it could add value to your life.

So, again, if this adds value, share it on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, tag me, lewishowes.com/685, and let me know what you think.

Again, a big thank you to our sponsor today, ziprecruiter.com/greatness. If you want to build a business, and grow your business, you’ve got to have A-team players. I have learned this the hard way, trust me. Hire A-team people on your team, and your team will thrive.

And ziprecruiter.com/greatness is powerful, and so effective that 80% of employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through their site within the first day, guys! And it’s no wonder why ZipRecruiter is the highest rated hiring site in America.

Right now, you can use ZipRecruiter for free and try it at ziprecruiter.com/greatness. Again, make sure to check it out, ziprecruiter.com/greatness, because it’s the smartest way to hire.

And, also, a big thank you to lumosity.com/greatness. Check it out! You can sign up for the free, ten minute fit test to get your baseline scores on three games and see how you stack up against others your age, all over the place.

They’ve got sixty plus cognitive games and activities to challenge your key abilities, like memory, speed, and problem solving, and you can track your progress the whole time and see how you compare worldwide.

So, find out, right now, by going to lumosity.com/greatness to sign up for the free fit test, plus a 30% discount off Lumosity Premium. It’s spelled, L.U.M.O.S.I.T.Y. dot com slash greatness, to take your free fit test and 30% off Lumosity Premium. Check it out at lumosity.com/greatness.

Again, as Colin Powell said, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”

That doesn’t mean it needs to be anxious, overwhelming and facing burnout. It’s two different distinctions. Which way of being are you going to show up and live? Don’t let anxiety and overwhelm ruin your life and define you.

Use these four phases and share, with me, another phase, that might work for you, on how to eliminate this in your life. Know that I love you, know that you are loved.

I believe in you, and you know what time it is: It’s time to go out there and do something great!