A few months ago, I was in a huge funk.
I had tons of sudden problems in virtually every freaking area of my life—business, health, major life decisions, moving (I’ve been vagabonding for the past few years), relationships, and more.
With so much crap going on, I felt overwhelmed, frozen, and stressed. Every issue seemed important and massive, and I wasn’t sure what to do first.
Or so I thought.
Then I reminded myself: Of course, I know what to do—I just haven’t decided yet. So I created a simple exercise to help me through and, in less than an hour, I created my next steps, set my priorities, took action, and felt instant relief.
A few days later, my life—and my mind—got a helluva lot better.
I’ll share what I did, why it works, and how you can use it in your own life to start getting awesome results too. Let’s jump right in:
Use a Brilliant Strategy From Medical Care
In the event of a sudden disaster or a massive emergency—when there are many people sick, injured, and in need of help, but a significant lack of resources—medical personnel will set up what’s called a “triage.”
The purpose of a triage is to separate the wounded based on the severity and urgency of their issues so the medical staff can devote their attention to those who need it the most.
With limited resources physicians must pick and choose who must receive immediate medical attention and who can wait, … In a triage setting, patients with minor injuries or sickness are given a green arm band. Those with moderate afflictions receive a yellow band and those in the most immediate need of medical assistance are given a red arm band.
— Dr. Scott Warner
For example, those in “red” get first priority. Once they’re helped, attention shifts to those in “yellow,” and once they’re helped, affection shifts to those in “green.” And although some injured people have to wait longer than others, it’s a necessary trade-off to save lives and stabilize the situation.
The same process can be used to solve life problems because you can’t fix everything at once, especially if you’re already overwhelmed. Instead, it’s far more effective to choose between what to do first and what to set aside for later.
With that in mind, I decided to do a triage on my own life. Here’s how:
How to Use In Your Life
First, I listed every single problem and grouped them into various categories like “finances,” “health,” “relationships,” etc. The reason I grouped them was to organize everything because many of my issues overlapped and targeted a common goal.
For what it’s worth, getting everything onto paper helped instantly so I didn’t have to carry those problems in my mind anymore—I could dump it out, organize it, and free up a ton of mental space.
Second, I performed a triage on all my worries. I chose the three highest-priority categories that I needed to address, and I put everything else on the backburner. I carefully considered each category and decided what I could delay and what I couldn’t.
This step is where many people struggle. They’ll say that “everything is important,” but that’s false. Truth be told, the reason why many people don’t know where to start is because of that belief.
And that’s the brilliance of a triage: During a medical emergency, every single person at a triage needs medical attention, yet with limited resources, who do you give attention to first, second, third, and so on?
In the case of your life, you only have so many hours in a day, so much attention span, and so much emotional and mental energy—so what are you going to dedicate that attention to right now?
You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you.
— Marissa Mayer
Making that decision might feel a little like Sophie’s Choice, but it’s necessary. To choose your top three, don’t just think about what’s the biggest problem. Think about what will have the biggest impact on your life both now and in the future. Think about what categories, if completed, will make the other categories much easier to complete.
Sometimes, you might actually prioritize the easiest and simplest problems to fix, not the most urgent. Because once you complete them, you can remove them from your list, feel relief, free up more energy, and create quick momentum to finish everything else.
Next, rank those three finalists in order of priority. (Trust me, once you prioritize your top three concerns, it makes everything much easier.)
Finally, for each of those three categories, write out the action steps you can complete right now to start making progress and improve your situation.
For example, let’s say your number one problem is “finances.” Maybe one action step is to list out the subscriptions you can cancel to save money. Maybe you can print out forms you’ve been procrastinating on. Maybe you can Google search some resources to help you.
The idea is to pick simple, quick steps—like 30 minutes maximum—that you can do right now to start moving forward.
Once you knock out those simple action steps, I promise you will feel incredible. You’ll feel a surge of momentum, and you’ll feel more confident because you now have a roadmap on where to go.
With this strategy, you’re taking the role of the general, not the infantry. You’re now the manager, managing your problems and yourself. That way, you’re not running around like a chicken with its head cut off; you’re planning ahead strategically so you can take the best action to get back on track.
The Most Important Trait for Success
Over a decade ago, when I was just starting out in my personal development journey, I emailed Nate Green, a young gymowner, fitness author, and person I greatly admired.
I asked him what he believed was the most important character trait that brought him the success he achieved. Was it boldness? Persistence? Ambition?
His reply was simple:
The ability to focus on what’s truly important. Whether that’s in life in general or on specific work tasks.
I always remembered that lesson.
“What’s truly important” might not always be the sexiest things. They might not even be the most obvious things. But being able to identify them and say “no” to everything else—time and time again—will let you achieve more results than those who can’t.
You see, sometimes life will swamp you with all kinds of shit all at once. Everything happens on the same week and you’ll feel terribly overwhelmed and stressed.
But in those moments, you only feel overwhelmed and stressed because you’re trying to bite off more than you can chew.
Instead, accept that you can’t do everything at once, accept that some things will have to wait, and perform a triage to decide what you need to focus on now and what you can set aside until later.
That way, you can stabilize your situation, stop feeling overwhelmed, and start getting your life back on track most effectively.
Good luck.
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