For everyone on the planet, life gets overwhelming at times. My advice is to “make small wins”. I’ve found this to be the best way of relieving stress, overcoming obstacles, and giving you added self-support.
WHY DOES LIFE GET OVERWHELMING
Life gets crazy for everyone. Unfortunately, it’s a lot tougher for some people. For those who feel like they are on a constant roller-coaster ride of highs and lows, this advice may be particularly helpful.
The purpose of one’s life is a difficult question to ask and answer. I believe that there is no universal answer because we all develop under unique circumstances. That being true, I think that everyone can choose to live a life of purpose. I think of it more as a decision than a calling or destiny.
Life gets overwhelming when we can no longer see even a sliver of purpose running through our lives. Society will have us believe that you need to buy things constantly to be happy, that you need to spend time out with friends every night, and even that you need to find something you’re passionate about! I too believed I that needed to quit my job in engineering to pursue a photography career to be happy. While I absolutely love it, I don’t think “following your passion” necessarily leads to happiness for everyone.
With all these pressures and the intense thoughts going on in your mind it seems like there is no escape from this feeling of helplessness – like you have no control over your life.
POSITIVE THINKING
If you’re going through this period right now, then it is the perfect time to develop a positive perspective. I don’t mean be all cheery and lie to yourself. No!
By positive perspective I simply mean that you look at everything in the positive rather than the negative.
Here’s an example…don’t think of a giraffe! Alright, so you very likely just though of a giraffe and if you didn’t then you just did the second time you read it. The same concept holds true when you’re trying to forget about your debt, hectic schedule, or the relationship in your life that is robbing you of happiness. By trying to think negatively about them (i.e. forget them) you are actually thinking about them more…and that’s not such a good thing.
To continue from the previous example, a positive view would be “think of a monkey” (assuming this is what you want). That way all you’re doing is thinking about what you want instead of what you don’t want.
SMALL WINS
So what are these small wins and why are they important?
Small wins get you through the difficult times. They keep you sane during those temporary lows. Completing “small win tasks” everyday will help you stay grounded.
Everyone’s small wins will be different, but here are a few examples:
- Make your bed
- Exercise
- Eat a meal
- Clean the dishes
- Clean the house
- Call a family or friend
- Buy a coffee
- Read a news article
- Meditate
- Take a walk/hike/bike
- Write a journal entry
- Take a shower
Yes, the examples are quite varied and I hope you saw a few in there that applied to you. If not, you can certainly come up with some on your own. When you’ve completed a task just smile and take in the fact that you completed it.
MY WINS
Some of my everyday small wins include posting a conversation piece in the Made by Ten Instagram account, writing a helpful article for women for this blog, exercising (P90X3 at the moment), meditating for 20 minutes, preparing lunch and dinner for my wife, taking a relaxing shower, and even opening up the curtains and blinds in the house to let as much light in as possible.
Before I began looking at my life this way it was hard to see the forest for the trees. The reason being is that life will overwhelm us and make us feel lost. Life, growing, and achieving can take massive amounts of patience. As you already well know, things don’t happen over night. Having these things we can check off in our minds give us the boost we need to continue to aim high, work hard, and keep taking those steps.
OTHER WINS: TEMPORARY AND FALSE
I’ll end with a few things that don’t fall under the category of “small wins”. These include temporary wins and false wins.
Temporary wins are things that help you, but aren’t repeatable everyday. Something like going on a vacation. This can help you relieve your stress and put you on a temporary high, but once you get back to the realities of life you’ll be faced with the same pressures once more.
A false win would be something like buying a new shirt. Sure, it will make you happy (maybe for even more than a while), but it isn’t something that helps you with your life goals. Unless your life goal is to have the Guinness World Record for clothes owned. I need to see your closet if that’s the case because we need to do a photoshoot together!
FOLLOW YOUR PATH
I’m sure there are lots of ways of combating the stresses and pressures placed onto us by society, our family/friends, and ourselves; this is one of the ways I know of and use. I keep this “small win” checklist in the back of my mind. It’s something that changes over time based on the situation I’m presently in. I know it works for me and hopefully it works for you! You’ve just got to take a few minutes to figure our your own path.
If you have any questions about life and creating a list of small wins you can look for in your life just send a message through our contact form. You can also leave a comment below! Finally, if you think this would be helpful to someone you care about then share it to them through your social media (see below) or email them the link directly!
Jonathan How is the photographer behind Made by Ten and calls Milton his home. He specializes in creating beautiful, creative portraits of real women. He uses photography (and this blog) to help them build confidence and love for themselves and creates artistic images for their homes and offices. You can see him driving around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada from portrait to fashion shoot and back again.