How to Think Straight When Life Goes Sideways

How quickly life turns inside out!  Suddenly you’ve got a mess. Or a crisis. So many things need doing—different things than you expected to address, and different emotions than you’d expected to encounter. You need to sort it all out.  Only you can’t think what to do first.

Decide on one next step.

Don’t try to address everything all at once. Pull your focus in and decide just the next small step. Like: Drink some water.  Don’t think of anything else.  Finish your water and then decide on another small next step. For example: Write down everything running through my head right now. Once that’s done, keep going with one small next step, then another.

Here’s what I think you’ll find: The one-next-step approach slows you down. That stops the sensation of everything hitting at once. You also begin to feel your power return (I got the water. Done!).  It gives you breathing room.  It also gives you thinking space because it calms you down.  And, it turns down the volume on all those competing needs and emotions, so you can begin to sort, filter and prioritize.

Let me know how this works for you!