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Are you one of those who want to do a lot of things and yet cannot make the time for all that is being aspired? Have you gone through depression many a times for not being able to make progress towards your dream(s) at the rate that you would like to? That’s what I refer to as being overwhelmed with self pressure and, if you are looking for some help, I hope this article gives you a change of perspective in dealing with such situations.

When overwhelmed with self-pressure, it is very easy to drift into depression. I’ve been through it innumerous times myself. Recently, I went through a peculiar instance of being overwhelmed with self pressure for what I would have least expected – Writing!

I have been blogging for some time now, and have been feeling good about being able to express myself in writing. It has been a dual-benefit activity for me, in that it helps me sort out my thoughts and feel happy, while at the same time it gives me happiness knowing that the articles would benefit my readers once in a while.

Over the months, I have been dreaming of being one of the best bloggers myself. Now, considering the fact that I am currently very much on the other end of the road, it may seem a bit too far fetched to think that I could be one of the best, but nevertheless, that’s what I am dreaming of achieving in the not so distant future.

Recently, I have been reading quite a bit about how top bloggers produce new posts not just weekly or daily, but even multiple times a day. I am not speaking about those who dabble a few words and call it a post, but those who write really good posts and still manage to bring out so many of them so regularly.

I wanted to do something to be able to write more posts like those who are able to do it. In fact, I wanted to do better. How can I make that much time? I need a number of hours in order to write a good article that will add value to my readers. And if I say my full-time job doesn’t seem to be giving me enough time, that would in some way seem like an excuse for myself. Not being able to give enough time to do what it takes to get there left me feeling overwhelmed altogether, so much so that I could not even get myself to write anything even in the little time that I could make in a week.

So how did I get myself out of the situation? Well, I wrote this very post!

Okay, I know you would want me to elaborate a little more on that. And that’s exactly the purpose of this article – to express how I went about it, in the hope that this may help you someday.

Here’s what you could do…

Accept that time is a constraint

Most of us get carried away with the loads of stuff happening around us all the time. We get bogged down by the demands from all side. We pay too much attention to what each and everyone thinks about areas that we are related to. And amidst all this, somehow we feel like we should be doing something so that we can take care of all the demands, expectations, and every single detail of what is happening all around us. But time is always a constraint. And the first thing you need to do is accept the fact that you will never be able to do everything of what you want to do (unless you hardly want to do anything).

That’s what I did. I told myself that time is my main constraint, and that I would only have a few hours a week to write, unless I leave my full-time job. Someday, I will. But until such a time, I will have to live with the little time that I have.

Clarify the core purpose

We usually begin something with a purpose in mind. And as time passes by, we tend to either drift away from this purpose, or enlarge the scope of the purpose to try and fit more and more into it. And when we do that, we set ourselves on the road to being overwhelmed eventually. We need to keep the true purpose in perspective, and if we drift away from it, we need to come back.

I realized that my core purpose of writing was not to compete, or to write numerous posts in a day. My purpose of writing was to express my thoughts and feel good about having been able to put them in order not just for myself but for others as well. For a person like me who listens more and talks less, it was just the right thing to do – to write. And that is the main reason I chose to write in the first place.

Realizing this made me feel a lot better. It made me want to start writing right away. I could feel the excitement build, and the happiness surface up on my face. I was no longer feeling overwhelmed. I had clarified to myself, my true purpose of writing.

Define your acceptable lower limits

Further, it is very much required to know what your higher limits are, but when it comes to dealing with self-pressure, it is even more important to define the lower limits. When you define your acceptable lower limits, you have a reference for yourself to measure against whenever you begin to feel overwhelmed again.

I defined my lower limit as being able to write one article every week or fortnight or, when my job takes its toll, may be at least once in a month. That was certainly not what I was very happy about, but it was a very practical and realistic estimate considering my other priorities. I thus set my lower limit. And if by chance I am able to write more frequently, I would just be very happy.

A concluding note

Well, that was how I went about dealing with the self pressure that had got me overwhelmed. Now that it is well laid out, it does seem simple. And by following this method, I hope that you find it simple as well, to overcome self-pressure whenever you are overwhelmed too!

Once you consciously accept that time is a constraint, then stick to the core purpose of what you want to do, and further define the acceptable lower limits of the activity amidst all your other priorities, you would most certainly be able to deal with self pressure. The only two things then, to be cautions about, would be not to fall below your lower limits, and not to set the lower limits too low to excuse yourself into negligence.