We’ve all been there – staring down a mountain of to-dos, feeling like we’re drowning in demands. But what if I told you that the real solution is a mindset shift for overwhelm? In this post, I’ll show you the #1 shift that has helped me and my clients take back control and avoid burnout.
The Truth Behind the Mindset Shift for Overwhelm
It’s easy to assume that being overwhelmed means you’re failing or not doing enough. Society tells us to just push harder. But that thinking is outdated. Overwhelm is simply a sign – something that used to work no longer does. Recognizing this is the first mindset shift for overwhelm that changes everything.
A Real-Life Example: When I Hit My Wall
Recently, I hit that familiar wall. My business was booming. I landed a book deal, spoke at six events, and kept producing content. On the outside, everything looked amazing. But inside? I was sinking. My assistant was overwhelmed too. The truth? Our systems no longer matched the level of our workload. That’s when I paused, reframed, and made changes.
Step One: The First Mindset Shift for Overwhelm
Start by asking: What’s no longer working?
For me, it was doing too much on my own – content creation, admin tasks, contracts. These weren’t aligned with my current growth. And pushing through wasn’t the answer. Pivoting was.
Step Two: Use Tools to Pinpoint the Real Culprit
Not sure what to change? Try my free Overwhelm Culprit Quiz. It’s designed to help you identify exactly what’s causing your stress—whether it’s time, consistency, clarity, energy, or boundaries.
Step Three: Pivot Smarter – A Powerful Mindset Shift for Overwhelm
Here’s the ultimate mindset shift for overwhelm:
You’re not failing – you’re evolving.
That simple reframe helps you get back into action. We hired more support, started automating, and restructured so I could focus on what I do best—speaking and serving.
Why This Mindset Shift Works
When you shift your perspective, you shift your power. Recognizing overwhelm as growth pain—not personal failure – gives you the clarity to adapt. And when you adapt? You thrive.
Where to Go from Here
Ask yourself:
Where are you pushing through when you should be pivoting?
Share your answer in the comments. And if you’re feeling stuck, take the Overwhelm Culprit Quiz to get clear fast.
Final Thoughts
Overwhelm isn’t a signal to push harder. It’s a sign to pivot smarter. When you embrace that mindset shift for overwhelm, you move from stuck to strong – fast.
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I’m sure you could probably relate to thisÂ
being really, really overwhelmed in a crazy time period and work
feeling like you’re drowning in responsibilities. This I know has been me over this past month. Like business is amazing. It’s doing great. It’s growing faster than expected. I’ve had a lot of different speaking engagements.
I landed a book deal. I have more work than I know what to do. And suddenly I feel like I’m drowning. So I’m sure you can relate to this and the one thing that you probably think is that this is negative Today I’m here to actually rewire that thought pattern for you because the truth is overwhelm isn’t a bad thing.
It’s actually a positive sign right? So stick around when I share with you the one single mindset. Hack that’s going to help you feel less overwhelmed and take back control starting today
you’re listening to The Next Step with Cori Lowe, where we transform overwhelm into confident action. I’m Cori Logaitis, keynote [00:01:00] speaker, coach, and working mama for here to help ambitious women just like you take the next step, whether that be leadership at work, at home, or in your community. Let’s get started.
So true story, like I am actually, or I should say I was as of a week or so ago, it was really overwhelmed, With the way the month of March has went. And this is really ironic considering that I make my living speaking on the topic of overwhelm and how to overcome it. But let’s be real. Overwhelm is part of our day to day lives.
It’s never going to go away. And One of the challenges with this, though, is the negative thought patterns that we have surrounding it. So, some common beliefs that you may be thinking right now if you are in a period of overwhelm are things like, Oh, I must not be good enough. Like, I’m not trying hard enough.
I need to push through harder. I’m a failure. Why is it that they could do it, but I can’t? Right? Things like that. And the issue with this is this type of thinking [00:02:00] goes to show how society glorifies us just powering through instead of learning how to adapt. So over the years I learned like this really fundamental mindset shifts that really changes the game when it comes to overwhelm.
And it’s simply this overwhelm is not a negative sign. It’s feedback. Right. It’s telling you that something that was working before now just doesn’t right. Pretty to the point. So let me just share like current example of things that were not working for me recently. So coming into the month of March was my busiest month in business.
I had booked over six public speaking gigs. I finally after months and months and months of work sold a book. we also had been a couple of weeks into doing this, you know, show for you guys. creating this content, it was just this never ending cycle and all of a sudden I found myself in a place where I’m like, okay, the amount of work I need to [00:03:00] do now is not matching the amount of time that I have anymore.
And the thing that was interesting about this too is I was talking to my assistant about this, you know, I was working with one assistant at the time and she was feeling the exact same way. Right? She’s just as overwhelmed, she’s in school, you know, the, the workload that we both were dealing with now all of a sudden is no longer working for the amount of time that we Now this is where folks will generally get themselves into, you know, hitting a wall. Right. And that’s when you continue to muscle through and power through at this rate without making a change. Right. So I very easily could just be like, you know what, I’m going to work really long hours and I’m not going to sleep.
And I’m going to say, you know, yes to everybody else and no to myself. And I can end up in this cycle where. I’m really on the fast path to burnout. That’s what ultimately happens when you stay overwhelmed for too long, you end up in a cycle of burnout. And that’s something that we [00:04:00] definitely want to avoid.
And for us type a high achievers, you know, which I definitely consider myself to be right. Well hit this wall more often because we keep that pushing through part. Right? That type A, like it’s okay, I’m just going to kind of muscle through this and it’s temporary. So instead of doing this, what I’d like you to do is to use my mindset hack and that’s to reframe what you’re feeling at that time and take back control.
So the first step with this is, you know, number one, like pause and ask yourself, what’s no longer working anymore? So looking at my personal example, what’s no longer working anymore. Some things that have been on my plate is I’m still very heavily involved in things with the content creation.
Um, for all this content that you’re creating right now, I’m still doing a lot of it myself without having a dedicated person for that. , which for a lot of folks at business at my level, they don’t do, they hire [00:05:00] out for it, right? I still was not at the point where I’m hiring out for that. I’m still handling a lot of tasks that I should be delegating to other people, like, you know, contracts, onboarding, uh, administrative work, right?
These are all things that were still on my plate, where truth was, it’s not working for me anymore. Like, I, I need that time to write, I need that time to speak, right? It’s being booked for other things, I can’t be doing that anymore. So, then from there, you gotta assess what needs to change. One of the cool tools that I have available for you is my free overwhelm culprit quiz.
You could grab it in the, show notes below or go to www. coreylow. com backslash overwhelm culprit. This is like the quickest and easiest way to discover what it is that you need to change for what’s overwhelming you right now because it’s going to be basically rooted in one of five culprits that’s causing you to feel overwhelmed and stressed out right now.
So I’m not going to do the quiz because I made the quiz, but I [00:06:00] know for me, like my overwhelmed culprit at the moment is consistency. Right? Lack of consistency. It’s impossible for me to remain consistent to my schedule and whatnot because I am overextended. So I know I need to create better systems and processes to be able to help me feel better.
So one of the big changes for me and my team is we decided that we are going to bring on somebody new, right? So that immediately, that one simple decision helps me feel more present and More empowered ready to move forward, right? Because I’m not going to be carrying this I’m not gonna be muscling through just because I have to I do have the power to change things, you know And change my situation and my expectations Right.
So like I mentioned before first is you’re going to be recognizing overwhelm is just a signal, you know Something is no longer working for you. What exactly is that? Assess what needs to change if you have difficulty with this take the quiz and then from there Another mindset shift, you’re going to shift your strategy, not your sense of worth, You’re not failing, you’re [00:07:00] evolving. What is it that you need to start adjusting? It’s really not a big deal. So in my instance, you know, we’re evolving by starting to automate some of our processes, we’re actually going to take some time and look at, you know, where are ways that we could leverage maybe tools like chat GPT or automatic schedulers and things like that.
We’re looking at expanding my team so that we’re have more people doing the same level of tasks. And we’re really going to start refining and making sure that I am staying in my zone of genius, which is really, you know, speaking and creating content, you know, and things like that. But not being involved in the like, creating stuff on Canva.
I shouldn’t necessarily be doing that myself anymore. So things like that, So when you’re overwhelmed, remember it doesn’t mean you’re failing. It just means that you’re growing, right? This is a cycle. You can then identify what’s causing the overwhelm, pivot your strategy, make some changes, You’re going to feel more motivated.
You’re going to keep moving again, right? You’re going to get out of that stuck cycle and you’re [00:08:00] not going to be like pushing through. You’re going to basically effortlessly be able to flow through the next step. You’re going to gain some momentum. Ultimately, something’s going to change. You’re going to feel overwhelmed again.
It always happens, right? You just simply need to identify where within your day to day life something changed, right? And now you need to adapt.
Right? So reflect where in your life today are you pushing through when you really should be pivoting? Remember, overwhelm is not your enemy. It’s simply a system that’s looking to reroute you in the right direction into taking action again. So I’d love it if you could share in the comments, you know, where are you feeling overwhelmed today and what is one small change?
That you could take starting today.
And as we wrap up today, one thing, if you take anything away from what I share with you today, it’s remember overwhelm isn’t assigned to push harder. It’s assigned to pivot smarter using the overwhelm culprit framework and taking that mindset hack that I told you to. Recognize that overwhelm isn’t [00:09:00] a bad thing.
You’re not failing. It just means that you need to do something different. I know next time you will get out of that overwhelm cycle even faster. If you found value in today’s episode, share it with a friend, like it, and I will look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Next Step with Corey Lowe.
I’ll see you there.
Thanks for checking out the next step with Corey Lowe. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review. Together we’ll transform overwhelm into action and we’ll keep taking the next step towards competent leadership. See you next time.