For those of you that may not be able to read the caption on the above picture it says:  “I’m a little stressed right now… (just turn around and leave quietly and no one gets hurt.)

A frequent underlying theme in my posts these past few months has been about goals and how it is important to continue to work toward them no matter what roadblocks life puts in your way.  Sometimes there is great stress that comes along with these roadblocks.  Recently, life has been stressful for me.  I had a lot of “to do’s” during a time when I thought I would get to relax and focus on my more solo interests and especially my personal goals; however, as always, life threw a curve ball.  My professional work increased to the point that at times I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  My personal life was filled with the normal holiday self-imposed stress and, of course, the stress from the never ending remodel.  Life was busy at every turn.  I was exhausted.  I was irritable.  I was not happy.  I did not even realize it.  But I felt like the person in that picture.

Stress sometimes has a funny way of sneaking up on you like that.  I knew that professionally I was working a lot harder than I had anticipated, but I was too busy trying to be wonder woman and do it all, that I did not realize that I was being short, that I was falling asleep really early, and that I seemed miserable to all those around me.  It took two things to happen for me to realize it.  I had written my third blog post in a row that took a completely negative turn and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it so it stayed (and still remains) in my drafts folder and my 8 year old daughter looked at me one evening and said “Mommy, you’ve changed.  You aren’t being very nice lately.”  I was crushed.  It felt like a vice was squeezing my heart.

That evening after everyone went to bed I sat and reflected on the events of the prior weeks and I realized that nope, I hadn’t been very nice.  I was so busy trying to do all the things that I had to do and that I wanted to do, and those things that I had set goals for myself to do, that I ran myself ragged.  I burnt that proverbial candle at both ends and I was burnt out.  I was not properly handling the hurdles that life was throwing at me, but in my bid to stay focused on my goals, I kept jumping over them, but I was fumbling and tripping in my bid to overtake them and reach the finish line.  So I stopped.

I took a break from working on my goals.  I did what I needed to do to get through my day at work, did what I needed to at home, but I didn’t do anything more.  I knew that there was a very near end in sight to those overwhelming projects.  I knew that it would be a short hiatus.  I knew that it was what I needed to do to regain my sanity and be closer to myself again, because I was not properly managing my stress.

Earlier this week I was finally able to feel like I could breathe again at work, my head is already in a better space, I’m still tired, but my mood has improved greatly.  Sometimes when the path toward our goals becomes too bumpy, we have to take a break and allow things to smooth out.  Sometimes you have to re-evaluate your approach or your timeline to obtaining your goals to make sure that you haven’t set the bar too high. The important thing is that you don’t forget what your goals are and that you have a plan to get back on track to working toward your goal.

I was giving myself until the end of this month to get back on track before re-evaluating my goals and the different arenas of my life to determine what needed to change.  I am happy to say that here I am, writing a post before the 31st of the month and I didn’t have to try to edit the extreme negativity out of it.  Life is getting back on track and it feels good.

How do you manage stress when life becomes overwhelming?