Plan to Plan
I just had a massive anxiety episode. I’m totally OK with admitting it. It comes in different forms for different people. For me, it’s so deep beneath the surface you wouldn’t be able to tell. That’s what I get when I take on “too much” and neglect to plan my responsibilities.
I put myself in this position last week and I didn’t dig myself out until this evening. I know there are certain steps that I need to take in order to keep my mind at ease. I didn’t take these steps. Instead, I decided I deserved to take the weekend off. Don’t get me wrong. I definitely deserve the time off, but I didn’t plan it and it probably wasn’t the most opportune time.
See, it was a funny thing writing about TikTok two weeks ago. I had a major breakthrough with my account on Thursday and we’re looking at 4X growth in less than four days: 44K. That’s a lot of eyeballs on your social media and I’ve never had an audience this size. I’ll admit it freaks me out. Friday I frantically searched a few forums to join so I could figure out how to move forward. I absorbed as much as I could, but then called it quits so I could enjoy the weekend.
My big mistake: letting a new development go unplanned. As I enjoyed the “break” from my responsibilities of growing this brand with the procrastination monkey at the wheel, the panic monster was looming in the background just waiting to pounce on my fragile mental state. I had a lot of my thoughts racing around my head in my idle time, but hadn’t sat down to draw it out. This was a recipe for a mental disaster and I willingly put myself there.
Do you ever do this to yourself? Something that you perceive as big happens and you try to play it off mentally because you really shouldn’t get worked up over it. Then you think about it more. It really is a big deal. CRAP. Enter: the panic monster. I spent most of my afternoon meditating and designating time this week to plan my next steps. Yes, I plan to plan – but I swear it’s a really great calming technique.
For me, racing thoughts happen due to lack of organization and phony urgency. All I needed to do was designate a day/time that I was going to plan my next steps. Literally, all I had to do was put the words “strategy session” on a two hour appointment in my calendar. This exercise is simple, but it’s what could have saved me this mess on Monday had I just put it on the calendar on Friday.
What it does for me is that it tells my brain that I have a specific time I am going to collect these thoughts and that I don’t need to think about them until that scheduled time. My brain shuts off and remembers that I have this appointment, so it pushes those thoughts off because I have it categorized as a certain level priority and a given slot on the calendar. Is this Type A enough for you?
All jokes aside, I want to elevate my life and my job to the next level, so I know I will have a lot on my plate. I have no doubt that I will take on more than I’d have ever imagined. I’m realizing that sometimes it comes out of nowhere and it’s difficult to have the dedication to my schedule or even creating the schedule in the first place. But I have to remember to ask myself: Is it worth the self-sabotage? Is it worth my mental state?
I know I’m probably not the only person that does this. Drop something into the comments below if you feel the same!
-Rachel
