Do you sometimes over-do it? 

I’m not talking about excellence. I’m talking about over-baking the cake, adding too many ingredients.

Do you make things harder than they need to be?

Often less is more. Less is better. You may not need ten steps, just three good ones.

At the moment I am flat-hunting and job-hunting. It’s all a bit much. I am stressed and spinning my wheels with the brakes on. I’m sure it looks funny.

Do I need to trawl through all available jobs? No, I just need to apply for one good one. And repeat.

Do I need to check online daily for flats? They only show on Saturdays. I could check once at the end of the week.

Anxiety leads to all that useless activity. I am worrying in motion.

Over-doing – a lack of trust

Last week I wrote about intuition. Over-doing is something I tend towards when I feel less in touch with my intuition. It’s a panic reaction.

Instead of trusting that God or fate is helping things along, I do way too much. I am trying to control the uncontrollable.  I make it harder for myself.

My actions may be wildly ineffective but I want smiley faces for effort! Look how hard I’m working. How about some gold stars?

Fear

When I’m feeling afraid I over-do and get jammed in the process. I want to go in many directions at once. I obsess.

Instead of listening for guidance, I trudge through a process I know how to do. At heart, I know when I am just going through the motions.

Trusting intuition

When I trust my intuition, some actions feel worthwhile and others feel bad or neutral. When I trust, I do more of what feels right and less overall.

How to spot over-doing

If I’m honest, I know that over-doing feels “off”. It’s like seafood left in the sun. Definitely not right.  It feels like pushing the cart-horse up a long steep hill, for no good reason.

It’s not the same feeling as working hard in a useful way. Good effort feels different. There is a warm feeling, a sense of focus. You know when you’ve done enough. It feels right. It’s ready. It’s finished. Then it’s time for the next action.

Asking questions

All this wheel-spinning feels wrong. I’m not sure what to do but good questions often break a stalemate. Try these.

  • What’s the best thing I could do right now?
  • What do I really need to focus on?
  • How can I make this easy?
  • What’s really necessary?
  • Which step could I skip?
  • If I had clarity, what would I do?
  • What feels right to do next?
  • What does my body say about the options?

Make up your own questions. Find your own answers. If you move from over-doing to ease, let me know. Tell us all how it’s done.

Now let me get back to it. I need to do more useless things. I want gold stars for effort. I’m such a good girl. If I sit up really straight will they pick me?

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