- Yesterday I woke up,
walked into my office, and just stared at my screen. I couldn't do anything. I was paralyzed. I had this mental list of
everything I needed to do, everything I needed to study,
every video I needed to make, and it overwhelmed me. It literally left me frozen, like, I didn't know how to start, and I didn't know what to do. So have you ever been there before? Just felt helpless, felt stuck, just done. In this video I'm going to cover two steps that you can take to help with this feeling of being overwhelmed. This video is both for you and for me because when I had this
overwhelming feeling I forgot what to do. I've been here before, but
I forgot how to address it. So what did I do? Well, I asked you for help. I asked you on Twitter, on
Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and I received
hundreds of responses. And they were so helpful. So thank you so much if you gave a response to those questions. And this video will be a curated list of all the comments I received, of things I'm going to
implement into my routine when I, again, start to feel overwhelmed. I'm using it now and I
will use it in the future. The two steps are pretty simple, with a few substeps. First step is just stop. Second step, reset. When I was feeling overwhelmed I felt like I couldn't do anything, but I felt like I had to do everything. And I was trying to do everything, but I didn't do anything,
like that's frustrating. Just saying that is frustrating. So I needed to stop. And there's a few things you can do to just stop and step away. To help you kind of
recover from that mindset, because it's the mindset that's bad. So many of you suggested to step away and pray or meditate. Just take a moment to
kind of find serenity, collect your thoughts. For me that meant talking to God, talkin' out my feelings,
reassessing my mindset. That helped tremendously. Oh and by the way, you
can do these in any order. Many of you said exercise, and that was awesome. That totally worked. Stepping away and doing
something physical, that's getting away from
your mental craziness and doing something that
just involves your body, produces those endorphins
that help you to be happy. Putting stress towards something else, lifting weights or running really hard, does change your mindset. It resets your body, which
then, in turn, resets your mind. This one is funny because
I didn't consider it, but it makes total sense. And it's taking an emotional timeout. Because when you're overwhelmed, it's a very emotional situation. You're upset, you're
sad, you're depressed, you're maybe possibly angry. All these emotions are tied
into what you're doing. So take an emotional timeout. Now what does that mean? It might mean smashing up a phone. So I did that. It helped a little. It might mean stepping away and watching a really fantastic, moving
movie or film like "Braveheart." get caught up in the freedom and the fight and just the exhilaration or maybe it's watching a
romantic movie with your spouse. (intense music) And just giving your emotions a timeout from feeling overwhelmed and
maybe feeling sad or touched or just anything. Engaging in something else is a key thing. That's the majority of what
this stop step is including is ways to disengage
from what you were doing, to do something else. Another just fantastic recommendation was spending quality time
with family and friends, taking that break to just remind ourself of the people you have around you. It's so therapeutic. So for me that meant going and hanging out with my kids and my wife, playing a game. It does a couple things for me. It reminds me why I'm doing any of this. Why am I working hard? Why am I studying? Well, it's for these people. So it kinda reignites and realigns my why. It also helps you kinda
reassess what's valuable to you and maybe help you figure out how to deal with your schedule, how to deal with what's
making you overwhelmed, because now you're looking at
your family and your friends, and you're like this
is really what I enjoy. This is really what I value. How can I change what I'm
doing to make this better? Or to prioritize your
family and your friends. That's what it did for me. And then I think one of
the best pieces of advice you guys gave was just ask for help. Asking for help is so key, which is what I did asking you guys, what do you do? What do you do to deal with the feelings of being overwhelmed? And you gave such great advice. What I would also recommend is, hey, jump on the phone with a friend, talk to your spouse. I think it should be someone who doesn't do the same thing you do or isn't into the same things you are in. Like maybe someone who's not into IT and who's not studying all the time. So for example, my wife. I talked it out with her, and it was so helpful because
she's not in my world, and getting that different perspective helped so much. It helped me step out of my bubble and see things a bit more clearly. This piece of advice is
probably my favorite. Yep, it's my favorite, and it's procrastinate. Now hold on, I know many of
you probably heard that word and go, oh, license to be lazy, heck yeah. No, no, no, this is to help you step out of your overwhelming feeling only. Now I don't think I have to
tell you ways to procrastinate 'cause I feel like we all
have a great understanding and we're very well
practiced at procrastinating. And for me a lotta times that means stepping away and playing Call of Duty. Playing video games. It actually checks all of the boxes for stepping away. It engages my emotions. I get super angry or exhilaration
when I kill everyone, it's awesome. Don't make it a habit,
but use it as medicine. So stop. Those are some way you can
stop doing what you're doing, some very helpful ways
that kind of help you get out of that mindset. And once you have stopped and your mind is in a better place, now it's time to reset. It's time to reset your
priorities, your schedule, what you were doing,
because what you were doing obviously was not working. Otherwise you would not
have gotten overwhelmed. So here's some things
I did to kind of reset, and a lot of it was advice from you guys. The first thing I did was I wrote down everything I felt I
needed to do right now. Once I had a list of
everything I was trying to do, it became a lot more apparent
why I was having a problem. I was trying to do too much. I was trying to study for
multiple exams all at once, CCNP Route, CCNP Switch,
DevNet Associate, Linux Plus, all within a very short amount of time. They all had to be done within February. That was a recipe for disaster. And I was also balancing
trying to create content for CBT Nuggets and creating
content for YouTube. I was just trying to do everything, and that's horrible. It's a bad idea. I don't know why I was doing this. Come on (laughing). But it wasn't obvious to me because I didn't have
it listed out like that. And once you have that list,
rip it up, throw it away. No. Take that list and write a new list. But put the things that you
know are the best things for your time and your energy right now. The prioritized things. Draw from your experiences of stopping and reflecting and kind of taking a break. And now with a clear head say what is it I really need to focus on right now? What's important for
my career, for my life, for my family, for my friends? And once you have those
things prioritized, and you've reflected and
decided what's important to you, start to cut some things out. You gotta be realistic about what your schedule has right now. What's on your plate? And you can't look at other people and compare yourself to them. I know in the IT world
and in a lot of industries we get caught up in
looking at what he's doing or what she's doing and they're studying for so many things and they got their CCIE and they're studying for three exams. But they're not you. Your circumstances are
different from theirs. Your why is different from their why. So to give you an example, for me, I'm trying to study for
multiple certifications and have a full-time job at CBT Nuggets and also make content for YouTube while trying to become a hacker and I have four kids. I'm doin' too much. I have to cut back. I have to be realistic. So that steps into the next
step you'll wanna take, is say no to things. Do less. So looking at my list I had the CCNP Route and the CCNP Switch exam
I was trying to complete within this month. And the more I thought about
it and looking at my why, my only why for completing those two exams was to, to just get the CCNP just for the sake of saying I did it. So it made sense for me
to go, no, CCNP Route, no, CCNP Switch, I'm gonna cut you out. I'm gonna focus right now
on the DevNet Associate. Plus I wanna be a part of that DevNet 500, which if you don't know about that, the first 500 individuals certified with a DevNet certification are recognized and get a special certificate
or something, I don't know. But I want it. So I cut some things off my list. I decided that I'm going to do less. And by doing less I actually
end up accomplishing more. Because being overwhelmed
I ended up doing nothing. I ended up being burnt out
and frustrated with myself, frustrated that my lack
of getting started. Doing less is the best. After you have your new
list, your better list, a list that's healthier for you, now you need to reestablish your routine, because routine is the key
to getting things done. It really is. Your daily routine, your daily
habits, your daily schedule. Those are what actually make
things happen in your life. And that's also very important because often when you're overwhelmed, and this was the case
for me, very much so, you will start to not obey your routine. Things that you know
are important for you, like eating right or working
out or studying this and that or spending time with your family. You'll start to take those daily habits that were very important for you and put them to the side
so that you can focus on the things you're trying to get done, things that were making
you feel overwhelmed. Studying for multiple cert exams or staying late and
working on this project. My routine was out of whack, and odds are that yours was, too. So I needed to reestablish my routine, get a healthy routine,
look at my priorities, and set up my routine the right way. And then lastly, this might be one of my favorite pieces of advice
I received from you guys, on the reset step here, and that's go slow and be okay with that. There's a great little sentence I read in the advice you guys gave, it was, go slow, it's the
fastest thing you can do. And that doesn't sound
like it makes sense, but it totally does
because when you slow down and you take a breath and
you focus on something you end up doing it so well, and it ends up making sense and clicking, so that's the advice I have to give myself because I'm trying to go so fast and accomplish so much so quickly, but no, I need to go slow, enjoy it, and I think the same thing
could be true for you. I know right now hustle
culture is all the rage, and you wanna study for certifications and get like 50 certifications this year. I get it, I know that, but
some things just take time. Some things will take you
longer and that's okay. If you're just getting
started with networking or Linux or programming, the beginning is gonna
be slow and that's A-OK. You wanna take your time and often if we go too fast we forget to enjoy ourselves in the process. And if you never capture that
enjoyment in the process, then you're gonna hate it down the road. So slow down and enjoy learning. And that was my problem
is I stopped enjoying it. I was just trying to get
it done, get it done, get it done, get it
done, accomplish, go, go, and it wasn't working for me. So the thing I'm trying
to preach to myself and I'm hoping that will
get through to you is that you have time. Now sure, going slow now
might mean that you might miss a few opportunities that come by. But I'm tellin' you, for
people that work hard and that are persistent, there are always opportunities, always. There will always be another one. I believe that. So the next time I feel overwhelmed, which I'm hoping it doesn't happen soon, but I know inevitably
it probably will happen because if you're ambitious or
if you're trying to get ahead you end up saying yes to too many things, which I'm working on, but it's probably gonna
happen at some point. Next time it's gonna
happen I'm gonna stop, and then I'm gonna reset. Stopping means stepping away,
getting out of that mindset, taking an emotional
break, procrastinating, spending time with family, exercising, praying, meditating, and then once I've gotten myself out of that just tumultuous mindset then I'm going to reset. I'm gonna write my
things down, prioritize, cut some things away I don't need, reflect on what's important. I'm gonna do less thing,
reestablish my routine, have a rock solid routine
that's healthy for me, my family, and it also is productive for what I'm trying to
do, what my goals are. And then I'm gonna give
myself a break and say, go slow, enjoy the process,
because you do have time. Now this was a curated list of things that you guys gave to me. At the end of this video I'm
gonna have just a quick bites of all the things that you guys said and you can watch 'til the end. It's such good advice. And if you wanna go look back at this post on my Instagram, Twitter,
YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, all of the advice was so great. So if you're feeling down
or need encouragement, bookmark those posts. That's what I'm gonna do. When I need help I'm gonna go back and ask you guys for help. Oh, and by the way, if you
like what you're seeing here. If you like IT, coffee, beards,
anything I'm talkin' about, I would be honored if you
hit that subscribe button and join me on this journey and hit the like button on this video because we have to satisfy
our YouTube robot overlords. They make the rules. Well anyways guys, that's about it. I thank you so much for helping me out when I felt overwhelmed. And I'm hoping this
will help someone else. When you feel overwhelmed,
come back, watch this video, and I mean I'll probably
end up watching myself again just to remind myself stop, reset, stop, reset. I'll catch you guys later. (light relaxing music)
