What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal, and I want to welcome you back to today's podcast.

Today I'm going to be speaking about a topic that impacts just about everybody at some point or another, but unfortunately, sometimes very frequent.

We're going to be talking about what happens when you're overwhelmed.

Whoo.

That's the big one.

Today we're going to help you understand how to identify if you're overwhelmed, what some of the impacts of being overwhelmed are.

And we're going to help you identify how to break free from it.

Man, I'm fired up for today's episode, and I hope you are, too.

Get ready.

This is your captain speaking.

We want to let you know we've been cleared for takeoff.

We have clear skies today with no wind, so we are expecting a smooth and highly enjoyable flight.

However, should you experience some personal turbulence, don't worry as you've chosen the right airline.

As we are trained in navigating unexpected bumps, our destination today is high performance and success.

Sit back, relax, get hyped, or do whatever you do.

As we too are pumped for today's flight.

We understand you have options when you fly, and we are grateful that you have chosen to fly with us today.

We recognize by choosing to fly, Neil Reyes, you are committed to growing personal development and reaching higher than you ever have before.

Enjoy today's flight, be blessed, and remember, the best is yet to come.

What's up, champion?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you to the Executive Perspective.

For years, I struggled to answer the question, what do you do for a living?

Why?

Because most people who ask only expect to hear one thing.

I'm an executive with a deep level of understanding of business, operations, leadership, and technology.

I'm also the president and founder of a worldwide ministry and CEO of an executive coaching and consulting firm.

My number one passion is people, and I receive significant gratitude in life from sowing into others and encouraging them as they grow to achieve their fullest potential.

If you're a high performance individual like me, or you're simply ready to take your business, leadership or inner potential to the next level, then strap in because I'm locked in and all in.

This is the executive perspective.

Hey, what's up, champions?

This is your host, Neal Reyes, and I want to welcome you back to the Executive Perspective.

Man, I'm fired up for today's show, like always.

But I am fired up today.

I have a topic that I think is extremely important to address and what we're going to be reviewing today.

Is avoiding overwhelm.

Man, this is a big topic right here because so many people feel stressed.

They feel pulled thin, stretched thin, but overall, they feel very overwhelmed.

And you can see it on their life.

You can see it on their demeanor.

You can see it showing up in their personality.

You can see it showing up in their family, their work.

And so today, we're going to speak about the topic avoiding Overwhelm.

You know, I think this is a pretty important topic to talk about because this is something that impacts just about everybody at some point or another.

You know, on our podcast here at the Executive Perspective, I say this in every episode, but this podcast focuses on three main areas.

We focus on leadership, business strategy, and personal development.

And overwhelm is something that can show up in all three of those areas.

This is something that can show up in every area of your life.

And for many of you, it may be operating right now, even if it's just subtle, and you may not be recognizing that that's what you're actually dealing with.

You know, sometimes it's a whole lot easier to understand or to recognize this than others.

There are times where you were just flat out maxed out, stressed out.

I'm going to say that again.

There are some times where you were just flat out maxed out stressed out.

And on those times, it's pretty easy for you to see it.

But especially those around you, how do others recognize that about us?

Well, almost always we're just a little sharper with our words than we mean to be.

We're just a little shorter in our responses, and we carry agitation on us, and it shows in our emotions on the outside.

And sometimes what you can see with people is maybe they just have low energy, they're wiped out.

Or other times they just look defeated and like, they just want to go crawl in a corner and start crying.

Well, I'm going to tell you that those are when people are feeling overwhelmed at the highest levels.

But what about when overwhelms a little more subtle?

Well, today we're going to review some of that, and I believe today is going to be a very healthy and happy conversation with you, and it's going to help you to be able to watch for these pitfalls of overwhelm, but also to be able to steer clear and give you some practical ways to recognize it and to keep yourself out of it.

Couple things.

I want to do some housekeeping.

As we start off today, though, I want to go over three simple little points with you, and then we're going to dive Deep into this.

The first one is that you weren't designed to live maxed out.

I'm going to say that again.

You were not designed to live maxed out.

You know, stress is not something we're supposed to carry on our bodies on a daily basis.

When God designed you, he didn't design you to carry stress.

Yes, he did design your body to be able to handle stress, and he designed you to be able to process stress.

Because stress is inevitable.

Stress is going to come at different times.

But living in a constant state of stress, that is not a godly design.

Living in a constant state of being under stress is not a godly state.

That's not what he designs life to be for you.

That's not what his master plan for you was.

But unfortunately, there are those who live in a constant state of stress where they're maxed out.

You know, they've proven that the impact of stress on the human body can be so significant that it actually has the ability to cause your teeth in your mouth to twist.

Now, I'm going to say that again because some of you are like, did he say the teeth?

Yes, the teeth.

I know that is super strong.

But stress can be such a strong factor in your life that it has the ability to cause your teeth to actually twist in the body.

If stress can be that strong that it can cause your bones, your jaw, your teeth to twist, that's something that's kind of on the outside you can see now, yes, I understand your teeth are inside your mouth, but everybody opens their mouth at some point during the day.

You either open it when you smile or hopefully you open it at least when you brush your teeth or something.

But if you can kind of notice that or see that, what about the stuff that's going on deeper under the surface?

Because understand, if you're dealing with stress, it's starting internally before it ever shows up on the outside.

You know, they've proven that stress can cause people to age prematurely.

They can develop wrinkles prematurely.

They can develop gray hair or even lose their hair prematurely.

It can impact the quality of your skin and your nails and other parts of your body.

And just overall, it can just create and wreck havoc or wreak havoc on your body.

But those are all the signs that you see on the outside.

What lurking underneath the surface may be much, much more dangerous than that.

In fact, you know, this show is not designed to go into this today, but one of the strongest impacts that a person can have on their body when it comes to stress is on their Nervous system, man.

I'm telling you, if you haven't studied your nervous system and how to regulate that and keep that in check, that's a significant thing.

In fact, I will tell you that there's two.

Now, I'm not a doctor, okay?

So you go do your own research or talk to your doctor.

But I do a lot of reading and a lot of research.

And one of the things that I've read over and over and talked to other professionals about is that there are two main things that the human body is deficient with that they found, especially in America.

The two main things.

One's a vitamin, the other one's a mineral.

The vitamin is vitamin D and the mineral is magnesium, man.

I'm going to tell you that's a big deal right there because both of those help your system and impact your system so much.

But they have found that vitamin D, if you have a deficiency of it within your system, vitamin D directly correlates or impacts your nervous system's regulatory responses or how to process stress.

And if you're deficient in that and you're constantly living in a state of stress or angst or a high pressure or overwhelm, you could be impacting things physically within your body that you may not even know what's going on because it's going to take time, potentially for it to catch up and show on the outside.

But on the inside, there's dangers lurking underneath.

I'm saying this because I feel led to share these things with you today.

And this is important because remember, here on the executive perspective, we have one direction we move.

We move forward and upward.

We're always moving forward and upward.

This is a podcast designed for high performers.

It's designed to help you connect with your best life, with your best self, with your best performance.

And if we're going to show up in the world for others, we first need to show up for ourselves so that we can operate at peak performance.

The other thing I want to share with you is a little bit of housekeeping before we take off, is to remember that overwhelm is not a signal.

I'm sorry, I said that backwards.

Overwhelm is a signal.

It's not a status.

I'm going to say that again.

Overwhelm is a signal.

It's not a status.

What do I mean by a status?

Sometimes there are people in life who feel they're high performers, and maybe they are, but sometimes, you know, it's not a high performer, but they are high capacity individuals.

Whoa.

That's a Knowledge bomb right there.

I'm going to tell you that there's a big difference between someone who's a high performer and someone who simply has high capacity.

Now, sometimes high performers can certainly have high capacity, and high capacity individuals can certainly have high performance.

But those two aren't always interlaced with each other.

It's possible for someone to mistake what they believe is high performance with really just high capacity.

In other words, they're used to living in a state of overwhelm.

Busy, busy, busy, busy.

You know, I've said in previous podcasts that the devil.

Oh, we got a visitor in the studio today.

Little Livy's wanting to play.

So that's my dog, if you guys don't know.

And just in case you didn't know that, one of my dogs.

Anyways, all that being said, what we have is people sometimes live in a constant state of overwhelm, where they're busy, busy, busy, busy.

And what I refer to that is that God wants us productive, but the devil, he wants you busy.

Why does the devil want you busy?

Because busy and productive are not the same thing.

Busy sometimes just keeps you distracted.

Busy keeps you busy doing a lot of stuff, but accomplishing nothing.

Now, there's the rub right there.

And I know people just connected with that.

When you're busy, busy, busy, sometimes you can be so busy being busy, you're not actually accomplishing much or doing much.

There's a big difference between busy being busy and being productive.

The next thing I want to go over with you is when you learn to recognize this early.

I'm talking about recognizing when you're overwhelmed.

When you learn to recognize it early, learn how to respond with wisdom.

You're able to reclaim your peace and your power.

Man, that's a strong unlock right there.

What do I mean about when you learn to recognize it early and to respond with wisdom?

Well, what's wisdom?

Wisdom is knowing the things you need to do to get out of that state of overwhelm.

And if you know how to do that, and for all of you, it might be different.

There are certainly things that are across the board that I can say.

If you do this and you do this and you do this, you're going to help deal with your overwhelm.

But then there are other things that are different for some people.

Like, for example, if somebody wanted to go do a cold plunge, well, there are some who are listening to this, and they might be like, cold plunge.

That's where it's at.

But there's a whole lot of other people listening who are like, forget that.

I'm not going to go jump on no ice bath now.

If you know what doing jumping in a cold plunge does for you, A lot of times what you're doing is you're exercising mind over matter.

So it's a mindset practice, but it's also been shown to help things as like immune systems and your nervous systems, regulation of nervous systems.

Now, at the same time, again, I'm not a doctor, but I read a lot and I study a lot.

And a lot of the professionals I talk with, this is something that's really big for them.

So just sharing that with you.

But there are things you can do to help you with this.

So exercise your wisdom.

You know, I want to tell you that there's a scripture in the Bible and it talks about that sometimes a person can be underneath so much pressure or stress within their life that when they're going to bed at night, they wish they were waking up in the morning to have a fresh new start to the day.

And when they wake up in the morning, the moment they wake up, the pressures of life and stress and overwhelm are so strong that they wish they were already going to bed so that they could just forget about their problems and forget about the day.

You know, I pray you never ever experience what I just talked about.

But I will tell you within my own life, I've been there before.

Once.

Once was enough.

I didn't need to go revisit that theme park again.

But there is a time in my life where I had so much overwhelm and so much stress and pressure within my life that it was so overwhelming that when I was going to bed at night and laying my head on the pillow, you know, when you lay your head on the pillow, so many thoughts can get so loud.

Because when you lay your head on the pillow, everything slows down.

All the distractions you had during the day to keep you busy or occupied, they're now gone.

And your mind has time to start processing things or think about things.

And if you haven't learned how to train your mind and guard your heart, man, I just gave you some power.

Twins.

Listen what I said.

If you haven't learned how to train your mind and guard your heart from the pressures of this world, it can run rampant the moment your head hits the pillow.

And there was a time in my life where I went through this.

And when I was going to bed, I was under so much pressure and stress and so overwhelmed that as I was laying there at Night, I was just wishing I was waking up in the morning for a fresh clean slate to a brand new day.

And when I would wake up the next morning, the moment I woke up, I'm not talking like after I got up and, you know, cleaned up and got my first cup of coffee or tea.

No, I'm talking the moment my eyes opened.

And sometimes it's even how my eyes open to it.

Like I was already processing the thoughts in my mind as I'm waking up and I'm waking up to these pressures.

This is in the past, not present, praise God, but in the past.

I would wake up during this period and I was already wishing I was going to bed so that I could just forget about the day and just get rest.

Because, you know, sometimes you can go to sleep and wake up and not even feel rested at all.

In fact, you can feel more wiped out in the morning than you did when you went to bed.

Because while you may have got physical rest, your mind was so active with worry or concern that you didn't get any rest at all.

I'm telling you guys, this is a real thing and it's something that I've been through before, but I've learned how to overcome it.

So I want to help you to how to overcome it as well.

Today we're going to help you recognize overwhelm before it wrecks your momentum.

I'm going to say that again.

Today we're going to help you recognize overwhelm before it can wreck your momentum.

And we're going to give you some simple ways to escape it fast, especially if you're already knee deep or neck deep in this thing.

So how do you recognize overwhelm?

Well, there's some simple ways to do this.

This is not an exhaustive list, but these are some simple ways that you can do this.

Here's a few what I refer to as symptoms that sometimes high performers might not always notice.

In other words, if you're dealing with some of these, you might not notice it as overwhelm or the early stages of overwhelm.

But these are some of the stages of overwhelm.

Some of the easy ones to see are shortened patience or irritability.

You're not as patient with people or with things as you normally would be, or you're more irritable than you normally would be.

Another one is what I refer to as decision fatigue.

Now, notice I didn't just say fatigue, I said decision fatigue, meaning that you're either slower to make decisions than you normally would be or you're actually overwhelmed by the number of decisions or the complexity of the decisions you have to make, even when they're not very complex at all.

It's decision fatigue.

This is a significant one.

This one's kind of more subtle, but it's a significant one.

Another one is lack of focus or racing thoughts.

That's a big one right there.

You know, one of the things that tells us in the Bible is that Jesus gives us a command that we're not to carry worry.

We're not to carry worry on our life.

We're to take those cares and we're to cast them on him.

We're to cast them on God and let God hold those cares and worries for us, because we're not designed to carry those.

Remember, God has designed our bodies and created us to be able to handle and process stress.

In other words, to deal with stress and process stress.

But he has not created us to carry it.

In other words, to harbor it, to hold onto it and be under the constant pressures and weight of it.

That's not how we're designed.

And understand, this is the manufacturer.

This is the Creator himself.

So, you know, if you looked in your car today and you looked in your owner's manual and it tells you what to or not to do, they know best, because the people who produce that book are the ones who manufactured your car.

Well, God manufactured and created us.

So understand.

He understands.

And his owner manual for our life is the Bible.

Those are some basic instructions for life right there.

The next thing is feeling productive but not effective.

Ooh, that's a big one right there.

Especially from a high performer who are listening, because sometimes you think busy is productive.

There's a way where someone can feel really productive, but when they look at what they're doing, they recognize they're not being very effective.

In other words, you were busy being busy, but you're not very effective.

Another one is emotional flatness or sudden dips.

That's a big one right there.

Emotional flatness.

It means you don't really get too high or excited about things.

Now, if that's just your general personality as well, that doesn't mean you're in a state of overwhelm.

So also understand character and personality feeds into this thing, too.

But at the same time, if you're someone who's normally, you know, laughing person or jovial or happy and outgoing, and all of a sudden you're noticing you're just kind of flat, you don't really react to things.

Things don't really bring you Joy things don't really bring you happiness.

And gosh, I felt this as a check in the spirit.

Sometimes there are those people who are out there who've been in that state for so long that they've learned to mistake overwhelm for personality.

Oh, that's a big one right there, man.

My prayers go out to you, my compassion.

There are those who have been in a state of overwhelm so long that they've gotten to the point where they've mistaken overwhelm as their personality rather than what it actually is.

In other words, this is just their character.

This is who they are.

But it's because you've been under that constant weight for so long, you don't even recognize it anymore.

So now it just feels like who you are, and it feels like yours.

And that's just who you think you are.

And there may be even others that think that you're like that as well.

And that's all that thing is doing.

That weight that's on you is hiding the true you.

It's weighing down your true potential.

Your true potential not just to perform in business and leadership, but sticking with personal development to perform at your full potential of life, living with joy and fulfillment and happiness and gratitude and good energy.

What I mean by good energy is you have energy to do things, to move and to exercise and be mobile.

And if you want to go skiing, you go skiing.

And if you want to go snowboarding, you go snowboarding.

And if you want to go kayaking, you go kayaking.

Or you go on a run or a walk or ride a bike, but something.

But you have energy to do those things.

And unfortunately, overwhelm is weighing you down in those areas.

Now, here's a leadership truth bomb for you today.

If you feel like you're doing a lot but not getting anywhere, you might be managing tasks, not priorities.

Whoa.

I'm going to say that again.

If you feel like you're doing a lot but you're not getting anywhere, you might be managing tasks, but you're not managing priorities.

What's the difference of that?

Priorities are when you learn to say, these are the things that are important to me.

These are the things that will lead to a better quality of life.

And when you learn to start managing priorities, what you'll learn to do is you'll stop scheduling your life around all the responsibilities you have.

And what you'll actually learn how to do is to schedule your responsibilities around your life.

And that's.

I wish I had more time to go into that, because Maybe I'm not even saying in the most effective way for all my listeners to understand, but here's what I want to say.

There is a way where you can be so focused.

In fact, I'll address my small business owners for a minute.

Because if you're, and I say small business owners, but business owners in general, if you're a business owner, okay, and this is different for people who work in corporate jobs because sometimes they don't always have this flexibility, especially if they're closer to the bottom than they are to the top.

But for my business owners, listen up and if you're like, well, I'm not on a business, you may one day.

So you pay attention to if you're a business owner.

Most business owners that I encounter when I'm coaching or consulting, they design everything that must be done within their business.

In other words, they take all the responsibilities of their business and they put them in place and then they try to fit their life outside around that and the spaces that are left.

What you're supposed to do for quality of life, as you identify and prioritize the things you want to be doing in life, the things that matter to you, and you schedule those things first, and then you learn how to build your business around that.

Because if you learn to build your business around, if you first identify what's important to you, those priorities, and you learn to build your business around that, then the quality of your business goes up exponentially because that quality of that business is now feeding or supporting the things that are important to you rather than stealing from the things that matter.

Man, I'm telling you, that's a massive shift and a massive unlock.

I work with people all the time doing this.

Now, I'm not trying to plug for my consulting services, but if this resonates with you, but you don't know how to do it, reach out to me.

I can help you create a plan.

You can reach out to me at infoealreyes.com email me infoealreyes.com that's n e a l r e y e s.com infoilreyes.com but let me help you pass that, though, in case you don't reach out.

And that's okay.

What you do is you design or create what's your priority and design your business around that.

Now, understand, this may be challenging for you to do, especially if you're already midstream and you're already doing your life different than that, where business is at the center and everything else is around that.

But I can help you be able to make the shifts that you need to.

But understand this and you have to be mature about this.

If what you said is, let's just say you're married and you say a priority for you is to be able to turn around and have coffee with your spouse.

Oh, there's Livy again.

But if you want to have coffee with your spouse every morning, say at 8 to 9 o'clock, and that's your priority, or let's say, for example, you're not married, but you want to be able to go play tennis with some friends every morning from 8 to 9, or you want to go out.

Maybe you live somewhere where you have a body of water near you and you want to turn around, you want to go kayaking or paddle boarding, but something that matters to you and you've identified, 8 to 9pm is the time you want to do that.

But let's say you're also the business owner of a restaurant, but specifically you own a restaurant that focuses only on breakfast and lunch.

Well, if you only focus on breakfast and lunch in your business, then you may not be able to cut out 8 to 9 just for you to go do this activity every day because it may steal from your business unless you identify this is a priority for me.

And if you were working with me, what I would say is what would have to happen for you to still be successful and the business still be tended to, but to create that freedom for you.

And we would probably create some type of a plan of identifying a person or persons, most likely people, multiple people that you could train up to help manage those responsibilities, to give you the freedom to do what you need to do.

But where the maturity comes in is understanding that it might take you some time to get there and not feeling like it's a failure while you're working towards that, but rather seeing it as a success as you move forward.

Because remember here on the executive perspective, we move one direction, we move forward and upward.

That's how we do it.

But as you put those systems in place, you may recognize now it's easier for you to accomplish what you're wanting to do.

And as you put those things in place.

And the reason why I say multiple people rather than one is because through experience and business, I am a firm, firm believer in creating processes around systems and not people.

Because if you create it around people, eventually if those people want to leave or even just take a day off or need to take a day off for a vacation, it can leave you hanging.

But when you create processes around systems, not people.

It's plug and play.

And now you're ready to scale and grow even more.

Next, I want to go over some reasons why leaders tend to face overwhelm.

Some of the reasons why leaders tend to face overwhelm, and this is just a few, but the weight of responsibility.

Sometimes you can have responsibilities that are so significant on you as a leader that over time it can just overwhelm you.

Sometimes it can even be immediate if it's a really big thing you want to realize or you want to recognize.

One of the main reasons why people struggle with responsibilities and when they feel heavy, oftentimes, especially unfortunately, especially for high performers, it's due to their inability to recognize or to ask for help.

I'm going to say that again.

And man, this is a big one with high performers.

Because high performers sometimes are so busy, busy, busy, and sometimes they think that again, there's sometimes the mistake that their high capacity.

So that means they're a high performer and they may not be performing at a very high level at all.

They're just performing at a high capacity because they're adding more and adding more and adding more and more and more.

And they're just, man, they're just feeling just overwhelmed with that over time.

But remember, sometimes there are those that after a while, they're just used to being in that state so long, they just think that's even their personality when it's not.

It just that's the constant state that they're in, the constant state of being that they're in.

But high performers sometimes struggle with recognizing when or that they need help.

Other times, high performers, they really struggle with asking others for help because sometimes they feel that it's not going to get done right or get done correct unless they're the ones that do it.

And so if you find yourself having more responsibilities than you've got bandwidth to handle, then it's time to find some help or it's time to prioritize things a little differently.

Now, here in just a little bit, I'm going to go over later in this podcast, I'm going to go over some things that are real important that can help you with the prioritization to help you kind of figure this thing out.

But just understand that sometimes that's one of the things that impacts leaders and that's why they have overwhelm.

Another thing is the helper trap, always being available to help others.

Now understand what I just brought up here and understand what I did a second ago when I talked about the weight of responsibilities.

There was a trap there too.

But what was the trap?

It was the trap of you not recognizing you need help or you not asking for help.

But now you have the help trap, which is different, where you have someone who's always being available for others.

In other words, they're overextending themselves or they don't know how to say no.

Everything's a yes.

And sometimes they're not even asked.

They just do it.

Whether if it's part of approval addiction or something else.

They're just like, can I do that for you?

Can I do that?

Can I do that?

And sometimes maybe it's tied to a servant's heart.

However, even if you have a heart to serve, if you're overwhelmed and you're not performing at a very high function and you continually take more on from other people, then you're really not serving them the way you could or should, because you're not able to give that thing your best because you're already in a state of overwhelm.

So recognize the help trap.

And here's where it gets real dangerous.

Champion.

Okay, you pay attention.

All my champions that are listening, you pay attention because this is where it gets dangerous.

If you're the person that you don't know how to recognize when you need help, and you're the person who doesn't know how to ask for help, but you're also the person who constantly steps in the help trap of taking on more and more and more by taking on more of other people's things, then, man, you just got double whammied.

And no wonder in your state of overwhelm, because not only do you not know how to ask for help, not only do you not ask for help or feel like.

And sometimes it's just feeling like you can't ask for help, other times, though, you just don't recognize to ask for help.

But now you're actually taking on more and more things for other people.

You're spreading yourself so thin, it's understandable why you're living in the state overwhelm.

Another one you got to be cautious about.

And this is another reason why leaders live in a state of overwhelm, or why they experience overwhelm.

Not all leaders, but the ones that deal with this is a fear of slowing down.

In fact, sometimes what high performers or leaders think is they have this fear of slowing down.

And really what the fear is in their mindset is that they fear fear slowing down because they think slowing down means that they'll lose momentum.

Oh, that's a big one right there.

They think that sometimes they have this fear, whether it's spoken or not, but they're afraid that if they slow down, they're going to lose momentum.

But I will tell you that sometimes you actually have to slow down to speed up.

Now, one of the things I will tell you, and you know, some of you have experienced this, but some of you haven't.

But if you've ever been to a racetrack where you get to race exotic cars, first of all, if you haven't done that, it's amazing.

I just love it.

It's one of my favorite things to do.

Because when you're on these race tracks, and I know that's not for everybody, but when you go to these race tracks, you know, there's a lot of curves, there's some straightaways, and you're getting to race really high end, exotic cars.

You're talking things like Lamborghinis or ferraris or Porsche GT3 RS, something like that, but you're getting to race some really, really high end vehicles.

Those other ones they'll have out there as well.

But you're not just racing them.

When you get on that racetrack, you're going to drive it like you stole it.

I mean, you're like, boom.

You're out the gates and you're taking off and you'll have a professional driver in the car with you.

But the more you've done this, the more you know how to race.

And so you're really doing this.

But what happens when you're going in and out of these corners?

Almost all of these executive, or I'm sorry, executive, all these exotic racetracks, they put these cones on the track and they teach you how to have the most efficient line in driving.

That's the most efficient way to go fast around the track.

And they show you how to aim at certain cones and then turn and aim at the next cone.

And there's times where they tell you to brake going into a turn and other times they tell you to brake hard and turn.

And when you're out there, I mean, your wheels are squealing most times so loud, especially if you really know how to drive that car, that it sounds like the tires are going to pop off that thing, but they're not.

Because these are high end, exotic cars that are designed for this, but they also have very high end, expensive tires that are designed for this as well.

And you're pushing these cars to the limit.

But there's one thing that the professional drivers will always, always tell you.

And I can hear it now because I know I have some professional drivers listening to this.

And what they always tell you is smooth is fast and fast is slow.

I'm going to say that again.

Smooth is fast and fast is slow.

And that doesn't only translate to the race track.

That also translates to leadership and life.

You see, on that racetrack, if you're trying to drive fast, fast, fast, fast on every corner and stuff like that, what actually happens is you're not smooth.

So you're driving so fast you're having to over brake or you're having to overturn to compensate, and you're losing your line that you're supposed to be racing.

That's the most.

The most efficient path to drive on that racetrack.

And so fast, even though you feel like you're being productive, you feel like you're driving fast, Fast actually means slow.

You may think you're going fast, and sometimes they'll take a video of you, and afterwards you go and look at the video when you're done racing, and, man, it feels like you were going 200 miles per hour on that racetrack.

And you look and you actually only had a top speed of like 60 miles per hour, and you're like 60 miles per hour.

Well, what happened?

It's because, you know, you don't have long stretches, but there are also times where you're taking corners if you know how to drive smooth.

Smooth is fast, fast is slow.

But there are times where if you know how to go smooth, you're taking corners at 60 miles an hour.

That may sound absolutely absurd, but remember I told you about the tires squealing like crazy and the car is turning smooth is fast, and fast is slow.

That translates identical, I'm telling you, identical, into life and high performance and leadership as well.

Now, here's a truth bomb for you, okay?

Leadership without boundaries isn't leadership.

In fact, it can actually lead to a slow burnout.

I'm going to say that again.

Leadership without boundaries isn't leadership.

In fact, it can lead to a slow burnout.

Man, that's fire right there.

Because if you've ever been through a burnout, it's horrible.

It's awful.

I've been through one significant burnout within my life.

There's been other times where maybe I got close, but I pulled back because I recognized.

And really what it was is sometimes a person can feel like they're burned out, but really they're just very overwhelmed.

But if they live in a state of overwhelm for too long and stay in that red zone too long.

Yes, it can lead to a burnout and it's nasty.

But you want to know when the burnout is the worst?

The burnout is the worst when it's when in your own business that you own.

Who?

Man, I'm telling you from experience.

You want to know why?

Because most business owners have significant responsibilities around that, whether if it's loans that they owe or, you know, people salaries or business or something, you know, if you're in a regular job, and I'm not trying to diminish that at all, but if you're in a regular job and you're burned out with that environment, or you're burnt out with your people you report to, or you're burned out just in what you're doing, that atmosphere, you can leave that job at any time.

You can cut bait and leave that job at any time and go work somewhere else and start all over.

But when you're a business owner, you can't cut bait like that.

You have to still show up day in and day out, whether you feel like it or not.

Man, I got a lot of business owners who are nodding their heads with me right now.

I'm telling you because I've done this.

And you have to find a different way to dig deep and get yourself out of that situation.

When I say dig deep, I'm not talking dig a bigger hole.

I'm talking you got to dig deep inside of you.

How do I get out of this situation?

Man, I'm going to tell you, this is a significant thing.

And when you do that, you learn to overcome that.

You learn that's a state of life you never want to be at again.

Now, what I will tell you is there are many people who work in corporate jobs and they're burnout.

Absolutely.

And if you don't know how to deal with the things that led to your burnout, just because you leave that environment and you go somewhere else, it may be better for a bit, but after a while, the burnout is going to return.

And the reason why is because you didn't leave the burnout behind.

You brought it with you.

Because for some people, not all, but for some, the burnout wasn't because of the environment.

The burnout was because of what's inside you.

I'm going to say that again.

Sometimes the burnout is not because of the environment of the place where you worked at.

Sometimes the burnout is because of the environment that lives within your heart.

And if you have that type of a thing going on.

It's just a matter of time before you reproduce those same situations in your new place of work.

Because those are problems that are conditions of your heart and your mindset that you carried with you.

You know, if you're that person who falls on the health trap where and the help trap where you, you're the person, the leader who doesn't know how to recognize when you need help and you don't ever ask for help.

But you're also the person who falls in the help trap of constantly taking on things for others.

Well, it's just a matter of time before you get established in the new place and you're doing that all over again.

Be careful with this driver.

Pay attention, champion.

This is not the type of stuff you want to do.

I'm helping today, man.

I tell you what, I'm teaching good today.

So I joked around about that.

But we are going over some important things now.

Here's some simple steps that if you are dealing with overwhelm, here's four simple steps that you can do to help you out of it.

Now I say four simple steps.

It's more than that, but four simple topics.

The first thing I recommend you create you a list.

What do I mean by that?

Well, this is a list where basically you list everything that you're working on or you list everything that needs your attention.

Why?

Because identification is key.

You got to start somewhere.

Sometimes, like I told you, people just don't know how to recognize when they need help.

It's because they don't recognize how much they're trying to do or juggle.

So sometimes you got to write it down so you can see it.

Now after you do that though, I'm going to take you to the second point.

And I find this to be extremely effective.

This is where I like to introduce what I refer to as a modified Eisenhower matrix.

Now if you don't know what an Eisenhower matrix is, of course if you're watching on the video, you can see the screen.

We'll put something up for you.

But if you are not watching on the screen, then just go turn around.

If you're on the podcast where most of our listeners actually listen to, then just simply Google Eisenhower matrix.

But I'm going to explain it to you.

So I'm basically painting a picture with my words here.

And Eisenhower matrix is where basically you design a four point quadrant.

Here's what I mean by that.

Basically consider it like as if you wrote a plus sign on a paper.

So a vertical line and a horizontal line.

And that created four quadrants.

Sometimes if people are in business, you'll see like the gardener quadrant or things like that that you'll see in business.

Well, just consider that you have these four quadrants.

You have upper left, upper right, lower right, lower left.

And in this Eisenhower matrix, or what I like to refer to as a modified Eisenhower matrix, what you basically do is on the top you have listed as like most important.

And then on the side you list most urgent, or vice versa.

You could put urgency at the top, importance on the bot on the left.

And specifically what you would do is upper left.

The upper left quadrant, those are the things that are the most important and the most urgent.

The things in the top right quadrant, those are things that are important but not that urgent.

Things on the bottom left quadrant to the bottom left, those are things that are not that important, but they're urgent.

And then sometimes you have, on the bottom right you have things that are not important, not urgent.

Now you can kind of massage this around a little bit different the way you want to, but usually that's the way it is.

Usually the top box is urgent and important.

Top right, less urgent, but important.

Bottom left, less important, but urgent.

And then bottom right, less urgent, less important.

But again, look this up.

But here's how you design your quadrant, okay?

And this is what I refer to as a modified Eisenhower matrix.

And if you don't know how to draw the quadrant, no big deal.

Write the list.

I'm about to tell you, this is how you do it.

What you need to do.

This is where you take that list.

So you have the list that you already created of all the things you're actively doing, or all the things that need your attention, and then you break them down into a four part list.

You can just write this down on a piece of paper.

You don't even need to do the quadrants.

These are the four categories that you write.

The top left, the first quadrant would be do.

Now, these are the things that are very urgent and very important.

The second quadrant would be things that you can delay, meaning that they're important, but they're not that urgent.

And then the third one are things you can delegate.

These are things that are urgent, but they're not that important, meaning they don't need your hands on them.

And then the fourth one are things that you need to drop, meaning they're not urgent and they're also not important.

If you break down this list in whatever order you do it, and really it doesn't even matter if you do it in the order I said it.

But if you break down this list between category number one, anything that goes in this category, these are all the things you need to do now.

Then you have your next category.

These are things that you can delay, your next category, things you can delegate, and your final category, things you need to drop or delete.

If you learn how to do this, you'll be highly effective because what you do is you take that list of all the things you wrote down that you're working on or that need your attention, and you start to map it out on this matrix.

And as you map it out on this matrix, it begins to tell you a story.

Because right now you're treating it that everything is in the do now category, but everything doesn't need to be on the do now category.

You're going to be surprised about the amount of things that you actually need to delegate, or things that you need to just delay or schedule for later, or the things that you just need to drop that don't need attention at all.

You know, so many times, especially in business and leadership, it's easy to chase things that you feel are priorities, but they're not what I refer to as needle movers.

And maybe we'll dedicate a podcast just to that, to needle movers or needle moving activities Place.

It's easy to be busy, but be busy doing things that don't really move the needle or accomplish much.

In other words, you're just working on noise within the business.

That's a powerful one.

Just working on noise within the business.

Now your next thing I recommend you do is learn how to protect the first 90 minutes of every workday.

Oh, I'm going to say that again.

Learn how to protect the first 90 minutes of every workday.

Another way to say it is just your first 90 minutes of every day.

Because some people might say, well, what does that mean?

Does that mean the first 90 minutes from the time I woke up?

For some of you, yes.

Someone else might say, well, does that mean the first 90 minutes from the time I walk in the office?

For some of you, yes.

I can't give you a blanket statement and tell you what it's supposed to be, because you're going to have to recognize this for your own life.

But for some of you, it's going to be the morning routine.

That's going to be the moment you wake up.

You need to guard the first 90 minutes so you have time to spend time in the word or you have time to read.

You have time to go walk or go exercise or just have some downtime or meditate or journal in the morning before you start anything else.

There's going to be others that it actually refers to the first 90 minutes of their workday, where the moment they walk in the office say they walk in at 8am the moment they walk in from 8am to 9:30.

The first 90 minutes, it's blocked and it's guarded.

Where all they do is focus on big items first.

And what you do within these 90 minutes is they're meant to help start your day with purpose, not reaction.

I'm going to say that again.

It's meant to start your day with purpose, not reaction.

And one of the first things I recommend is don't start your day checking email.

I'm going to tell you that, you know, every night when I go to bed, I sleep with my phone by my bed.

Part of it is because of what I do as a cio, I'm available at all times for a phone call in case something's going on that needs my urgent attention.

I don't get the phone call very often, but I'm available in case it needs to.

I need to answer the phone.

But one of the things the Lord showed me a while back is when I would wake up in the morning, I would reach over and hit my alarm and turn it off.

And then I tend to grab my phone and pull it over and I'd start looking at my the text messages that came in or emails from my bed or I started looking at my schedule.

And man, he dealt with me firmly one day and said, stop that.

Now, he may not tell you stop that, but I'm sharing with you what I've learned.

He said, stop it.

Because what was happening is it was contending for my peace.

And I've said it before and I'll say it again, but anything that contends for your peace is too expensive and you need to learn to set it down.

You know, sometimes you might have a great job or a great work atmosphere that you work in and you're feeling like you need to escape it or leave it.

But really it's not the atmosphere at all.

It's how you process and how you respond to the atmosphere.

Don't go give away or get rid of a great job or your calling in life because you're misappropriating or prioritizing, I should say, how to put things in their correct order.

If you've got a problem with work because it's a work issue, learn to deal with that.

And maybe you need to leave.

But if you've got a problem because it's a you problem, learn to deal with you.

Because if you don't, that thing's just going to follow you around.

Because when you go to work, at some point during the day, you leave work and go home.

Even if you don't have healthy boundaries around your schedule, you still leave at some point because you don't sleep at work.

But the one thing that you never leave is you.

You take you with you everywhere you go.

I know that sounds profound and it helps some of you out, but you take you with you everywhere you go.

So if what you've got is a you problem, then you need to take care of you.

The next thing I'm going to recommend is learn to get outside or get physical.

I'm going to tell you that movement helps.

It helps to break mental loops, and it also helps to bring clarity.

Sometimes clarity can come from just simply going for a walk and going outside.

Remember earlier I told you one of the main deficiencies that people have, especially within the United States, is a vitamin D efficiency?

Well, you know, one of the best sources to get vitamin D from, that's from sunlight, walking out, going out and letting the sun have contact with your skin.

Now, for all my dermatologist friends and people out there, they're like, wear sunscreen, yes, do your things to protect your skin.

But it's important to get outside, Understand?

Sometimes you'll get more clarity from going from a walk than you will from that next strategy meeting.

Whoa, that's fire.

But I'll get off.

I know, I know.

I stepped all over your toes right there.

I'll get off your feet.

But I'm here to help you remember, on the executive perspective, we move one direction, forward and upward, Praise God.

Another thing I'd recommend to you, and these are just some of the things that I like doing, but I noticed that when I work out, especially with weight resistance training, it just helps me to really push through.

And something about that exertion of force, it helps me to de stress and just get clarity and really, really live in a relaxed state.

It helps me also just by being physical, especially sports.

I'm a big person on sports.

I love playing soccer, whether if it's outdoor soccer or indoor soccer, I absolutely love it.

But something about the physical exertion.

Another thing I love doing is I love playing basketball and I love playing tennis.

Now I love golfing, too.

And golfing is relaxing to me because when I go golf, I'm not really concerned about my score or, you know, what the handicap is or anything.

I'm not a bad golfer, but I'm not a great golfer because I don't do it often enough.

I could be a great golfer.

I just don't do it often enough.

But when I go, it's about relaxing and getting outdoors for me.

But when I go play tennis, you better watch out.

I'm ready to play some tennis.

I like to compete, but the physical activity helps me.

And one of my favorite, favorite things that I've learned to do is I love sitting in an infrared sauna.

Now I say an infrared sauna, you can sit in any kind of sauna.

And for some people it's the ice bath.

But for me, I enjoy it so much because of all the different health benefits and things of the infrared light that I actually bought one for my house for me and my family.

And that's become one of my favorite things to do.

And for some people, that's not enjoyable at all because they feel like they're just cooking in a box.

But I will tell you that there's, there's a lot of medicinal things about the infrared light.

And I also have different lights I can put on in there.

And so I can put red light or orange light or green light or any color light.

And those are different things that are scientifically proven to help your chakra and your state of emotional state and stuff like that.

But all those different things like that and for each their own.

But I'm going to tell you that the response on just your body and your nervous system, it's highly, highly beneficial and the recovery.

But sitting in there and sweating like that, it's like I've worked out.

It just helps me relax so much.

So those are some things that I do.

You don't have to do those, but I'm just sharing with you some of the things I do.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and give you some closing thoughts and we'll wrap up today's podcast.

First, closing thought.

Overwhelm is one of the devil's favorite tools.

Understand that he can't cancel your calling, but he will definitely try to stop it, to distract it or delay it if he can.

I'm going to say that again.

Overwhelm is one of the devil's favorite tools.

He can't cancel your calling or your assignment, but he would love to try to stop it, to distract it, or to delay it.

And I want to finish by encouraging you with this.

I want you to list three things and answer these questions.

And here's the first one.

What matters most?

What matters most is simply understanding what you need to prioritize and what matters most to you.

The second thing, who are you serving today?

Who are you supposed to be serving?

Or who do you want to serve?

Who are you supposed to be serving?

And the third one, why you started, in other words, specifically, I want you to remember why you started whatever it is you're doing, whether if it's that business, whether if it's the leadership, the promotion you went after.

You know, at some point someone had to apply for the job.

They have, even if it was a long time ago.

But as you rise up through the ranks, at some point, maybe they just came to you and wanted to promote you.

But there is a reason why you said yes, or there's a reason why you applied for that promotion, or there's a reason why you started the business, or there's a reason why you opened that thing you're doing.

There's a reason for it.

Reconnect with that.

Because if you do those three things, they'll help you to escape and stay out of a state of overwhelming or a state of overwhelm.

They'll help you avoid overwhelm.

Guys, I want to thank you for stopping by to grow this day.

I want to encourage you, remind you that I believe in you, Champion.

I believe you have greatness inside of you.

You just need to continue to cultivate it and get it on the outside so you can go and smash it.

I also want to remind you to swing by our website@neal Reyes.com where you can connect with all of our teaching resources.

And until next time, I just want to remind you, I believe in you, Champion.

You have greatness inside of you.

Go cultivate it and go smash it.

Thank you and have a blessed day.