Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #173| Pop Quiz: What's Causing Your Overwhelm?
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: It's not your calendar, it's not your inbox, it's your mindset.
- 0:03Michelle Gauthier: It always goes back to your mindset.
- 0:10Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:17Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:22Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.
- 0:34Michelle Gauthier: Hey, friend, how's it going?
- 0:38Michelle Gauthier: I hope you're having a great week.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Today I did something a little bit fun.
- 0:42Michelle Gauthier: I asked AI to listen to all of my podcasts.
- 0:47Michelle Gauthier: They're like well, this is 175.
- 0:49Michelle Gauthier: So there are lots of them now and I said listen to all my podcast episodes and summarize the overall themes of what I teach or things that I say a lot, and there were a bunch of takeaways, but the number one theme that came back was mindset.
- 1:04Michelle Gauthier: Specifically, it said the power of managing your thoughts to reduce overwhelm and improve productivity.
- 1:10Michelle Gauthier: If you've been a podcast listener for a while, you're probably shaking your head now and thinking, yep, that sounds about right.
- 1:16Michelle Gauthier: That makes it into almost every episode and it's really at the core of what I teach my clients and how I teach them to change their lives and stop feeling overwhelmed.
- 1:27Michelle Gauthier: So that made a lot of sense to me, and I decided for this podcast this week to turn it into something a little bit fun and to create a quiz for you that we're going to do on this podcast episode.
- 1:39Michelle Gauthier: Even if you're a first time listener, stick with me, because you'll be able to totally follow along and you might learn something about your own brain and about mindfulness that you didn't know before too.
- 1:49Michelle Gauthier: If you have been a listener for a while or did coaching with me, you're probably going to nail this pop quiz that we're having today.
- 1:56Michelle Gauthier: So here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna ask you a few quick questions, give you a second to think about your answer and then, of course, I'll give you the answer.
- 2:04Michelle Gauthier: It's going to be a short episode.
- 2:06Michelle Gauthier: It's just five questions.
- 2:07Michelle Gauthier: It's going to be fun and it's going to be a great reminder or, if you haven't heard this before, if you haven't learned much about mindfulness before, a great starter to get you started on the path of how much mindfulness can change your life.
- 2:21Michelle Gauthier: Also, one other funny thing when I first asked it what do I say all the time on the podcast.
- 2:26Michelle Gauthier: The two things I say the most are hi, friend, which I think I say at the beginning of every episode, and then, if you enjoyed today's podcast, please leave me a review.
- 2:33Michelle Gauthier: So apparently those are two things that I say the most often, so I guess you're probably used to hearing me say that too.
- 2:39Michelle Gauthier: But it's true, if you enjoy this episode or any episode of the podcast, it would be amazing if you would leave a review, because we just got bumped up.
- 2:48Michelle Gauthier: It's been in the top 2% of the podcast for about a year.
- 2:51Michelle Gauthier: It just got bumped up to top 1.5%.
- 2:55Michelle Gauthier: So it is really working.
- 2:57Michelle Gauthier: You guys are all listening, sharing this with your friends, leaving ratings and reviews, and our percentile friends leaving ratings and reviews and our percentile.
- 3:08Michelle Gauthier: So that is top 1.5% of podcasts, of 3.6 million podcasts in the whole world.
- 3:11Michelle Gauthier: So thank you very much to everyone who has listened and written a review.
- 3:14Michelle Gauthier: Even though I've said it 700 times, thank you for those who actually did it.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: I appreciate it so much.
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's get into our fun quiz.
- 3:22Michelle Gauthier: So question number one is, what creates your feelings?
- 3:26Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, if you're feeling overwhelmed or stressed or joyful, what created that feeling?
- 3:36Michelle Gauthier: The answer is your thoughts.
- 3:44Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, if we're thinking about your to-do list and you look at your to-do list and you feel overwhelmed, we know that it's not the to-do list that's making you feel overwhelmed, it's your thoughts about the to-do list.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: So there's just that little step in between.
- 4:01Michelle Gauthier: We feel like it's the to-do list, but really it's your thoughts about it.
- 4:05Michelle Gauthier: A thought like, "this is impossible, creates panic or overwhelm.
- 4:10Michelle Gauthier: A thought like one thing at a time creates calm.
- 4:14Michelle Gauthier: So it's the same list.
- 4:16Michelle Gauthier: It's not the to-do list, it's a different mindset that gets a totally different outcome.
- 4:21Michelle Gauthier: Okay, keep going here on the quiz.
- 4:24Michelle Gauthier: True or false?
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: If a thought is in your head, it must be true.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: I hope everyone's yelling out in their car wherever you're listening.
- 4:36Michelle Gauthier: False, this is false.
- 4:39Michelle Gauthier: Your brain serves up 60,000 plus thoughts a day and most are just thoughts that come as a habit or fear-based noise.
- 4:48Michelle Gauthier: Sometimes our brain makes an attempt to keep us safe and gives us serves up lots of negative thoughts.
- 4:54Michelle Gauthier: So it's okay, that's not a problem, that our brain will just drop in negative or fear-based thoughts, but we have to have the ability to question them and decide whether we want to believe them or not.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: You get to choose the ones that actually help you move forward or help you feel better.
- 5:10Michelle Gauthier: We think that our brain is a truth-telling machine, but it's really a habit machine.
- 5:16Michelle Gauthier: It just gets into the habit that every time, for example, your boss calls you if you have a horrible boss and you see their phone number on your phone that your brain drops in the thought of run away or this is dangerous, or don't answer, or oh crap, what are we going to do now?
- 5:35Michelle Gauthier: And that just becomes a habit.
- 5:38Michelle Gauthier: Okay, question number three is, what is always in your control?
- 5:44Michelle Gauthier: Lots of stuff that's out of your control, but what is always in your control?
- 5:51Michelle Gauthier: Your thoughts and your actions.
- 5:58Michelle Gauthier: Now, if we back up to the question number two right before this, you'll remember that I said your brain puts a lot of thoughts in your head that aren't true.
- 6:06Michelle Gauthier: So I'm not talking about the thoughts that just drop into your head.
- 6:10Michelle Gauthier: I'm talking about the ones that you evaluate and if you decide to believe them or if you work on having a new thought.
- 6:17Michelle Gauthier: So that part is in your control and the actions that you take from those thoughts, either the bad ones or the good ones are in your control.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: Now, question number four is the opposite.
- 6:30Michelle Gauthier: What is always out of your control?
- 6:33Michelle Gauthier: There are lots of answers for this one, but what is always out of your control?
- 6:36Michelle Gauthier: This one, but what is always out of your control?
- 6:49Michelle Gauthier: The shortest answer for this is everyone and everything else.
- 6:52Michelle Gauthier: So you can't control your boss's mood or your inbox.
- 6:53Michelle Gauthier: Things are just coming into your inbox, or your kid's snarky tone, or what your next door neighbor thinks about the fact that you haven't cut your grass in two weeks.
- 7:03Michelle Gauthier: You can't control any of that.
- 7:05Michelle Gauthier: And because that's true that you have no control over it anyway, I often encourage you on the podcast to spend as little time as possible in that zone thinking about what other people are thinking or trying to control someone else's mood, because you can't do it.
- 7:20Michelle Gauthier: So you might as well save your precious energy and put it towards something that is in your control.
- 7:26Michelle Gauthier: Okay, last question, question number five.
- 7:30Michelle Gauthier: Let's just say you sit down at your desk in the morning and the first thought that pops into your head is, I'm not doing enough, or I'll never figure this out, or I'll never catch up to anybody else.
- 7:40Michelle Gauthier: What should you do once you notice you've had a thought like that?
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: This is the hardest question.
- 7:52Michelle Gauthier: What I would say is there's three steps.
- 7:57Michelle Gauthier: When you've had a thought that you don't want to remember I'm not doing enough as an example will create a certain feeling, and having a thought like I'm not doing enough is going to create a feeling like stress, panic, something to that effect.
- 8:10Michelle Gauthier: So when you realize that you've had a thought that isn't going to serve you, there are three steps.
- 8:16Michelle Gauthier: The first one is to notice it.
- 8:17Michelle Gauthier: So if you've gotten to the point where you realize you had that thought, that's step number one, which is about 80% of the battle.
- 8:24Michelle Gauthier: It's hard to get used to noticing the thoughts that come into your head because so many of them are unconscious.
- 8:29Michelle Gauthier: But if you can do that and notice that you've had the thought, pat yourself on the back and then question is this really true?
- 8:36Michelle Gauthier: Is there any evidence I can point to the contrary.
- 8:39Michelle Gauthier: So if I say I'm not doing enough and I'm like is that really true?
- 8:43Michelle Gauthier: No, that is not really true.
- 8:44Michelle Gauthier: Think of all the things I've already done this morning.
- 8:46Michelle Gauthier: Just yesterday I had six meetings, you know whatever it is and then try to reframe the thought.
- 8:54Michelle Gauthier: The thought has to feel true.
- 8:56Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, if your thought that pops into your head is I'm not doing enough, and then you try to switch that to I'm always doing enough, it's probably not going to feel true.
- 9:06Michelle Gauthier: Maybe a replacement thought for that would be I'm giving it my best effort for today, or I know what I need to work on next, or I'm going to prioritize my top three tasks, or I don't have to do everything all at once, or I'm doing enough things for today.
- 9:23Michelle Gauthier: There are a million different thoughts.
- 9:24Michelle Gauthier: You have to just figure out which one feels better to you than the original thought and then write that down on the top of your to-do list.
- 9:32Michelle Gauthier: So how did you do?
- 9:34Michelle Gauthier: I really want you guys to tell me.
- 9:36Michelle Gauthier: I feel like lots of you probably got lots of those answers right.
- 9:40Michelle Gauthier: So there were five total.
- 9:41Michelle Gauthier: Send me a message.
- 9:42Michelle Gauthier: I have a little link at the bottom of the show notes that you can send me a message on Instagram.
- 9:47Michelle Gauthier: You can DM me on Instagram and tell me how many you got on the quiz.
- 9:50Michelle Gauthier: I want to know.
- 9:53Michelle Gauthier: So this quiz wasn't really about getting the right answers, but just about reinforcing how powerful mindfulness is, because your thoughts are the first thing that can shift you when you feel overwhelmed or stressed or any way that you don't want to feel.
- 10:07Michelle Gauthier: It's not your calendar.
- 10:09Michelle Gauthier: It's not your inbox, it's your mindset.
- 10:11Michelle Gauthier: It always goes back to your mindset.
- 10:13Michelle Gauthier: So when you change your thoughts, your feelings follow, and that's how you shift your results too.
- 10:18Michelle Gauthier: If you think about the kind of work that you will do during a day when you feel completely overwhelmed and stressed versus the kind of work that you do when you feel confident and calm, you get completely different results.
- 10:31Michelle Gauthier: If this episode helped you catch even one sneaky little thought, send it to a friend who spirals with you.
- 10:38Michelle Gauthier: And if you want more help managing your mind, you know where to find me.
- 10:41Michelle Gauthier: Tune in twice a week on this podcast.
- 10:43Michelle Gauthier: Or if you're interested in doing one-on-one coaching with me, there's always a link in the show notes to set up a free consultation to do that.
- 10:51Michelle Gauthier: Oh, also, don't forget, I am doing a fall declutter reset.
- 10:58Michelle Gauthier: It's going to be lots of fun.
- 10:59Michelle Gauthier: It's going to be five days of podcasts.
- 11:01Michelle Gauthier: We're going to look at all different areas that you want to declutter.
- 11:04Michelle Gauthier: This declutter challenge has a ton to do with mindfulness, because it all starts with decluttering our mind and then decluttering our space.
- 11:12Michelle Gauthier: Thank you so much for tuning in and have a great week.
- 11:15Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 11:26Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegothiercom.
- 11:29Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.