6 Key Principles to Remember When Life Comes Crashing Down on You
Here is how to get through the tough times.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
- Rocky Balboa (2006)
These are some of the most-quoted lines in movie history. If you haven’t seen Rocky Balboa, you can watch the scene here.
Why are they so popular? Because they hit the nail square on the head. Sometimes life just keeps hitting you, it keeps beating you up and the only thing you can do is to take it like a champ.
First things first, I am a student, so what do I know about life being hard and not having enough time? All students do is chill all day. Well, kinda. Yes, in general, we do have a lot of free time and yes, I have taken weeks off for vacation when I should have been sitting in lectures.
But, and this is a very important but. I am not your typical student. I don’t get bored not knowing what to do with my time. I don’t watch Netflix. I do shit on the side. I start projects, I challenge myself, I try to make the most out of the very limited time I have here on earth. When I was doing a six-month full-time internship, I hit the gym six times a week to prepare for a bodybuilding competition (plus a three-hour daily commute). Currently, I am doing one of the highest-ranking business Master’s programs in Europe and I am building a writing and coaching business on the side.
Plus, I tend to always do shit last minute. I am a master procrastinator, but it works like a charm. Obviously, last-minute work comes with an inevitable pressure of an approaching deadline and a huge workload. So I have had my fair share of episodes where shit hit the fan.
I am currently in the middle of such an episode. For the last four weeks, I have been working every weekend, sometimes into the wee hours. Sunday night I left university at 2 am. I try to stick to my writing during the week, but the workload my Master’s program currently imposes on me is huge, so a lot of work tends to migrate to the weekend days.
I seriously dislike the current situation, but I know that I have to do what I have to do, so there is no other way but to bite through it.
There are always going to be episodes during which you feel like the ground gets pulled from underneath your feet and you’re losing control of everything. Relax. This is a normal part of life. We all experience it every now and then.
The question is: How do you kick ass during these times? Over the years, I have distilled six key principles that allowed me to master long periods of overload.
Keep it as short as possible
First of all, and I can’t stress this enough: Episodes of continuous overload are supposed to be temporary. The human body and mind can take a lot of pummeling in the short and medium run, but if these circumstances become permanent, you will pay a high price, as rising burnout rates demonstrate. If you constantly feel overwhelmed, it might be high time to consider doing less to achieve more.
With this out of the way, let’s proceed and see what you can do to become temporarily invincible.
It is only temporary and you are not going to die
For any hardships you might encounter in life, always remember that your mind and mindset are your most important and effective tools to get you through it. So that is where you have to start.
The one thing you must not forget is that everything is temporary. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said:
The only constant in life is change.
Even if you have so much on your plate that you can barely make time for eating and taking a shower, never forget that even the most unfavorable circumstances will not last forever. Life consists of busier and less busy episodes. Projects are going to end and deadlines are going to pass. The sun of a better, more laid-back life will rise once again and end the dark night of back-to-back meetings, sleep deprivation, and emotional suffering.
So even if you are submerged in elephant shit up to your eyes and can’t see a way out, trust that there is one and this will end at one point. Because it always does.
Focus on the routines and keystones of your life
This is probably the hardest but at the same time the most important step.
When you get steamrolled by work or an unforeseen event that requires large proportions of your time and energy, often the hardest part is keeping the rest of your life together. Sleeping, eating, exercising, some social life and relaxation. These are all things that are essential for you to perform well, but ironically, they also are the first ones we drop when things go south.
Long day at work? Ouff, no time for cooking a healthy meal and hitting the gym, let’s order takeaway and watch Netflix instead. Sounds familiar?
I don’t blame you. It’s hard to get up and do more when you are already gassed.
But here is the important part: In your life, you have certain keystones and routines that got you where you are. Sticking to them enabled you to become better, to advance, make progress and keep going. For me, my home-cooked meals keep me healthy, exercise keeps me fit and ready to perform. Reflecting and journaling at the end of the day helps me order my thoughts. Meditating in the morning is key for starting my day right. Weekly reviews and meetings with team members or supervisors ensure my work is aligned. Calling my mum every couple of days keeps me mentally sane and grounded. Without these, my performance would suffer greatly.
Whatever your personal keystones and routines are, they are the foundation pillars of your life. If they are in place, solid and strong, you can build on them. But if they start to crumble, everything comes crashing down.
So make them your top priority, hold on to them for dear life — they are what will get you through the tough times.
Get enough sleep
Sleep is crucial to performing well. Plus, it plays a major role in mood and health. Would you rather sit through a two-hour meeting dead-tired or well-rested? Peak performance exhausts the mind and body alike. Just like athletes require great amounts of sleep to regenerate, when your days are a shit show, you do so too.
So get that sleep in even if you hate it, recharge, and kick ass!
Doing something is better than doing nothing
We all know the feeling of being totally gassed, but still having a tremendous amount of work to do. In fact, the mountain of e-mails, spreadsheets, reports and presentations we have to go through seems so overwhelming that we go full-on deer in headlights. We stare at it, paralyzed, not knowing how in the world we are supposed to get through this (or where to start even).
In this case, always keep in mind that doing something is better than doing nothing. If you look at all your work as a big pile that is impossible to dig through in one go, you will be so intimidated that you are likely to not start working on it at all. Instead, you will push the thought to the back of your head. There it creates a way too realistic demon of unfinished business that will put you into a bad and stressed mood anytime it gets the opportunity. So instead of looking at the whole pile as something you have to get through in one go, commit to simply doing a little bit. This makes it more bearable in multiple ways. First, it takes off a great amount of pressure. Getting some work done is way easier than doing all of it right now. Second, it gets you closer to your goals and improves your self-esteem, because you did something instead of nothing. Third, as Mark Manson put it:
Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, but also the cause of it.
Once you get started on a task, it becomes a lot easier to keep rolling for a while. I usually read for half an hour before going to bed, but some days I feel like I can’t make it. Instead of ditching reading altogether, I commit to just reading a single page. And in most cases, this one page becomes a whole chapter or even more, because once I am immersed in reading, it becomes harder to put down the book than to keep reading it. And even if it doesn’t, I still have done something.
Prioritize and delegate
The easiest way to get rid of too much work is to not do it. Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Albeit this being a no-brainer, a lot of people I encounter don’t use this strategy nearly enough.
Prioritize your tasks and then forget about everything that is not a priority. You can only work efficiently on one task at the same time anyways, so why bother with the rest right now?
Delegate what you can, especially if the task is not in your key area of expertise. Somewhere in your company, there might be someone who understands MySQL way better than you do — and if you promise to return the favor, they might do you a real solid one. This often saves you hours of time and takes the expert you asked for help no more than twenty minutes. So get yourself to delegate some of your work and do others a favor in return. This makes both sides better off.
Have designated periods of free time to destress
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
— Proverb
When your workload rises and meetings are scheduled back-to-back, it is easy to have your free time slip through your fingers like sand. A call here, a quick lunch over work stuff there and two deadlines coming up — bamm, goodbye free time.
While you can keep working without break for a while, this approach will not work in the long run (not even speaking of the effects this has on your physical and mental health).
It is crucial to have designated periods of free time to destress. Times during which you turn off your phone and work computer to relax and gather energy. Don’t be afraid to communicate this to your co-workers and boss. A simple “I haven’t had a break in hours, so I really need a 15-minute breather in the afternoon to focus again and put full effort into the 4 pm meeting” will work wonders.
Even if your day is as packed as a Sherpa in the Himalayas, if you can get just 5 minutes off, there are plenty of things you can do to destress.
Not only should you try to have breaks during your day, but also you should have a definite end of your workday. It is the kind of creative break you need, the time your mind needs to unwind as well as organize and rewire your thoughts. Turn your phone off in the evening and don’t read any mail. It can wait until tomorrow. Again, communicate clearly here — “I need my evenings free so I can recharge and tackle work again the next day with a fresh mind, that’s when I come up with my best ideas.”
Tough times will come, but now you are prepared
While we can do our best to plan ahead and keep our life on track, we will derail every now and then. Unforeseen circumstances arise and there will be uncomfortable episodes every now and then.
During these times, it is especially important to keep your head up straight and have all your systems running.
Here is a quick summary of the six key principles that will enable you to withstand and master extended periods of high workload.
- Keep in mind it’s only temporary Doesn’t matter how hard it feels, it will get better. The only constant in life is change, so keep your head up high until it’s over.
- Focus on the routines and keystones in your life Your routines are there for a reason, they got you where you are right now. Make sticking to them your top priority and don’t let life derail you, no matter how hard it gets.
- Get enough sleep Only if you are well-rested, you are able to perform at your very best. This is non-negotiable.
- Doing something is better than doing nothing Slice up your work into small packages and commit to doing even the tiniest amount. More often than not this will motivate you to do even more, and even if it doesn’t, you still have done something.
- Prioritize and delegate Everyone has certain key skills and tasks he excels at. If something is out of your field of expertise, see if you can find an expert to do the work for you. Often they will take only a fraction of the time, you can do them a favor in return and in the end, everyone is better off.
- Have designated periods of free time to destress Unwinding and creative breaks are key to approach problems from a different angle and perform over longer periods of time. Clearly divide your time into work and leisure, communicate this and stick to it.
Periods of work overload and high stress aren’t fun at all. They are hard and tiresome times. However, with the advice I have given above, you’ve got your personal cheat sheet to perform well and get through without taking too much of a beating.
~ Moreno
