About the Episode:
Feeling overwhelmed lately? You’re not alone. Between everything happening in the world and the walls closing in on your personal life, it’s easy to feel like you’re trapped in a room with no doors. But here’s what I know about feeling overwhelmed. It’s not because life is too hard. It’s because you’re thinking too small. Most people make the same mistake when they feel overwhelmed. They start analyzing how they got into that situation. They beat themselves up. They think about what they could have done differently. That’s the wrong path. That’s small thinking. And small thinking keeps you stuck. I learned this lesson in Hawaii looking up at Diamond Head mountain. I saw people hiking up the hard way. Step by step. Rock by rock. Getting tired. Getting overwhelmed. Then I saw a helicopter fly by. That’s when it hit me. There’s always a bigger way to think about your problems. A faster way. A simpler way. Stop analyzing the past. Stop beating yourself up. Start thinking bigger. Start thinking faster. Start thinking simpler. Build your freaking helicopter and fly over those obstacles instead of climbing through them. That’s how you go from overwhelmed to unstoppable.
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Episode Topics:
- Learn why feeling overwhelmed is actually a sign you’re thinking too small
- Discover the Hawaii story that completely changed how I approach problems
- Find out the biggest mistake people make when walls are closing in
- Get the helicopter mindset that eliminates overwhelm instantly
- Stop climbing mountains and start flying over them
What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. Yeah, we are. We really are. Is that? Oh, man, I feel like there’s some people listening to this right now that are just feeling overwhelmed, you know. And that’s not like some crazy voodoo stuff. It’s just, like statistical, no joke, whether it’s job, whether it’s family, whether it’s relationship, whatever it is, you know, there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now. And you take a look, and you’ve got right spy balloons going overhead. And, you know, this isn’t even talking about, like, stuff in your own home, but you’ve got, you know, North Korea. North Korea shoots a missile. Right? Just as, like a taunt in ICBM. If you don’t know what ICBM is, it’s an intercontinental ballistic missile, right, to show, like, Hey, we’re warning you don’t come closer here, because there were some drills that the US was doing with South Korea. So it was just like a warning shot, like, Hey, hi, we’re still here. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. It can seem very oppressive. But then, when you get down to your own life, it’s like, what are you facing right now?
What’s going on? You know? What do you feel like? You’ve got walls that are just closing in on you and no doors to walk through to get out of that room that just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. That’s a shitty feeling, I know, because I’ve been in there, and I get to the point to where it’s like one you try to figure out like, and this is a mistake, by the way. You try to figure out while you’re in that room that’s closing in on you, how you got into that room to begin with, right? And that only just goes down this spiral of thought, and then you start to beat yourself up over it, because you start to believe me, like when the room’s closing in on you, and you start to think, how did I even get into this? It’s like, right away you can come up with the stuff to where it’s like, Man, this is where I really screwed up to get into this situation. But then you start thinking about how you could have done things differently and how, you know, things might have looked better if you had made a different choice, and whatever this was, and I’m telling you right now, that’s the wrong path of thought to go down, because where you’re at right now is where you’re at, and the only way to get out of that room is to look forward, because you freaking create a door and move forward in this.
Because if you keep thinking that way, you will feel very overwhelmed, because that’s a very small way of thinking, which is when you continuously think about how you got into that situation and what you could have done better. It’s a very small way of thinking when you feel overwhelmed. I’m telling you, I’ve probably said this before, when you feel overwhelmed. At least when I feel overwhelmed, it’s usually because I’m actually thinking too small. And it’s like you’re analyzing decisions leading up to that point on how you messed up. And it’s not to the point of trying to come up with a different solution, because the only way to come up with a different, better solution, to create that door, to blow a wall, blow a hole through one of those walls that’s closing in on you, is to come up with something completely different. And it might take a lot of work. You might have to, you know, build a tool.
You might have to come up with something just, just ingenious in the moment to try to get through that and out of that. But that’s the thing, is shifting your focus between what was and what is right now into what could be. That’s the only way to do it. And you might think that it’s like, super hard to get out of that, because you might be in a point where you’ve got, like, no more room, and those walls are so tight on you, and you have no idea how to get out. Even if you look up, it’s like the even the ceilings coming down on you, it’s like, man, it’s going to take so much work. Maybe I just give up in this scenario. Are you looking ahead? And maybe you actually come up with that idea? And you’re like, Wow, I love this, because this is going to solve my problem right now, but that’s a lot of work. I don’t know if I’m up for it.
Well, it’s time to do something better. It’s time to think of something bigger, some kind of different way. But tell you a story. Years ago, when I was in Hawaii, I was in uh, Honolulu, right on the island of Oahu, and I’m taking a look, you know, I’m actually there in the ocean, and I’m taking a look around. I’m at, you know, a great resort. It’s a phenomenal resort, taking a look around and looking out at the ocean.
And then I look over and I see, I think it’s Diamond Head the mountain. And I’m looking up on the top of that mountain. There’s people actually on top of the mountain right there, you know, a good, like, 1000 feet above me, 2000 feet above whatever it is, and looking out of the ocean like, man, that views gotta be freaking amazing. Got to be absolutely incredible. But then what I see is, I look towards like, the bottom of the mountain, and on the side of the mountain, I see all these individuals that are like, hiking up it, and I’m thinking to myself, it’s like, well, that sucks. Like I’m not a hiker. First off, I don’t want to hike. And. If you if you’re a hiker and you’re listening to this and you like that kind of stuff, that’s awesome. You go for it, right? Because to me, there’s certain things that I will apply myself to, and a lot of things I’ll apply myself to, I usually consider myself one of the hardest workers, if not the hardest worker in the room that I’m in, depending on if it’s my company or anything else, it’s usually I am the hardest worker in the room always been that way. So it’s not that I’m adverse to hard work.
It’s just adverse to hard work that I typically don’t like, but even more so that I can come up with a way to get around it and still accomplish what I need to, or maybe even have it even better than what I need to. So I’m looking up at this mountain, and I see these people on the top of like, well, that’s crazy. And then I see, because there’s helicopter tours all over Hawaii, right? I took one a couple times. It’s amazing, you know, seeing waterfalls and everything else. And I see a helicopter go by. I’m like, Huh? Well, why don’t I just get one of those? If, for real, if I’m looking up the side of the mountain and it’s like, you know, in that split second, and I’m thinking, Well, I don’t want to hike, but if the outcome that I’m reaching is way up there and I want to see that view, there’s probably an easier and faster way to do it. If I can figure out the right question to ask, which is, how do I get up there easier and faster? Right? What’s a method, what’s a tool that I can use, what’s a, what’s a different way of doing something, because in that moment, it’s like, I’m looking at the little people hiking up this mountain. You know, that’s great. Maybe they’re having fun. I bet you some of them weren’t, because, to me, hiking sucks.
I just don’t like hiking. And I’m looking at them trying to get up this mountain, and it’s awesome. It’s a great accomplishment, and everything like that. But you know what? If I can do something in a faster, simpler way. I love simplicity, and I love speed, because I move fast in everything that I do, including business. It’s like, let’s get the obstacles out of the way. And to me, all those little rocks that you got to climb over when you’re hiking can be obstacles. So if you’re thinking, it’s like, I got to put one step in front of the other, one step in front of the other. And it’s like you feel overwhelmed because you get halfway up the mountains, like, oh my god, I’m tired, and you start to feel overwhelmed. Because if it’s like a situation that you’re in where you’re talking about, like those walls are closing in, or if you’re on the side of the mountain and waves are crashing against you, you think you’re going to fall off. It’s like, oh, I got so much more to go.
But if I don’t press on, I’m gonna fall off. And you become overwhelmed. It’s like, how did I get into this situation to begin with? And you start looking back, it’s like, well, you started hiking up the mountain. First off, that was the first mistake. I’m laughing inside, by the way, you know, because it maybe, maybe not hike. But you start to analyze the past decisions that you made, and you become more overwhelmed, instead of maybe just looking up to the sky and seeing that helicopter go by, and now all of a sudden, you’re thinking bigger, you’re thinking faster, you’re thinking more simple, and immediately that sense of being overwhelmed will go away immediately, because now it’s like, right there, and it’s like, That’s my way to go. It’s not even necessarily your way out. It’s your way through, because your way out, if it’s a way out, you’re just avoiding the situation entirely, and you learn nothing.
But when you can think bigger, when you feel overwhelmed, it is because you were thinking too small. When you think big, you will be able to come up with a way through that is faster, simpler, more fulfilling. And I started looking at this helicopter. I’m like, shoot, that’s like helicopter mindset. If I can come up with a way, I’m gonna build the freaking helicopter. I’m gonna go buy a helicopter. I’m gonna figure out how to pilot that thing, and then I can go to the top of any mountain that I want to you see the metaphor. And I don’t have to go through the hike. I don’t have to potentially, like, break my ankle over something. I don’t have to deal with rock slides. I don’t have to deal with all these other things because I just avoided all these other risks that would have overwhelmed me in the moment and maybe potentially even killed me, because I thought big. I’m no longer overwhelmed. I thought simplistic. I’m no longer overwhelmed. I thought speed faster. I am no longer overwhelmed.
