132 How to Embrace Your Offseason During Overwhelm

"When we feel overwhelmed, it's feedback for us that something isn't working." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at www.lewishowes.com/132. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:11Lewis Howes?

  What is up everyone? Welcome to this edition of Five Minute Friday. I'm excited to share with you what I've been thinking about lately for this inspiration to take you into the weekend. Now, I've actually been getting some great feedback on these Five Minute Fridays, so thank you guys and lots of people listening and downloading and sharing them. So I'm gonna keep it up because you guys keep requesting it. And this one's all about finding your off-season during overwhelm. Now, I was speaking with one of my coaching students earlier today, and he said, "You know what, Louis? For the last couple of weeks, I haven't been able to get anything done. I feel completely overwhelmed. I've got so much on my plate. And because I feel so overwhelmed and like there's so much piling up, I just haven't

• 0:56Lewis Howes?

  been able to get started to do anything. And I haven't checked anything off my list, and I feel like I've been completely unproductive, and I feel really bad about it." And have you ever, anyone in here listening, ever felt that, like you're so overwhelmed that there's too many things piling up, your to-do list is a month old, and you're putting off everything to another day and the next day, and you just feel like you're overwhelmed, and so you never get anything done? I know I've felt that many times, and it's like you're pushing things to the edge. You know, we want to be able to expand our plate. The goal is to be able to have it all, right? I talked about that in a previous Five Minute Friday. I also talked about finding joy in the journey. And if you want to find joy in the journey and have it all, that means you gotta expand your plate. You gotta make

• 1:40Lewis Howes?

  your plate bigger so you can put more things on it. But sometimes, the plate doesn't expand, and the more things just keep piling up and up and up, and all of a sudden, it's an overwhelming plate where you can't even see the plate anymore because you have so much on top of it. So... Here's what I'm gonna say today, guys. You've got to find your off seasons. You know, we all go through seasons. As an athlete, I went through multiple seasons and there was always an off season. And sometimes, seasons overlapped. Where the team was already practicing in basketball, but we went into the playoffs in football. And so I had to jump right into basketball after the playoffs in football. And start practicing and I was a little late and behind and I'd feel overwhelmed. And at times when that would happen, I would get injured or I wouldn't perform as well.

• 2:25Lewis Howes?

  It's because I had too much going on and I wasn't able to be in the flow. So, when this happens, when you feel overwhelmed, it's okay to take an off season. That may be an afternoon where you just don't do anything. You just go to a movie or you hang out, you veg out, you have some junk food. You hang out with your friends, you read a book, you do something completely different than business. Or than what you're supposed to be doing, or you think you're supposed to do. Or that might be a week, or a weekend, or it may even be a month. It might even be a year, where you just need time to reflect on everything that you're doing. And really reconnect with your vision. Now, I don't recommend taking a year off and having an off season for that long.

• 3:07Lewis Howes?

  I recommend it being as short as possible and really use your talents to your biggest ability. With each day you have, but sometimes we need those days. We just need those days off. We need those days to reflect and to reassess what we're up to. And when we feel overwhelmed, it's feedback for us. It's feedback that something is not working at the moment. And that's why we maybe don't take action. And that's why my student was saying, you know, I just didn't do anything for the last couple of weeks. And I felt embarrassed and I was beating myself up because I felt like I should be doing more. And that's the opposite of what you want to do. So, the first step is being aware that you're in overwhelm. Okay, there's a lot on your plate, you feel overwhelmed. You're gonna know what the feeling is.

• 3:52Lewis Howes?

  You're gonna feel stress in your heart, your stomach, you're gonna feel tense. You're gonna feel like out of control. You're gonna feel like the emails just keep piling up. Just nod to yourself right now if any of these things you can connect with. If the emails are always piling up. Or something is always happening where you just can't catch up. The first thing is to be aware of it and say, okay, this is what's happening. I am feeling overwhelmed. The second thing is to give yourself some time to just relax and be like, okay, I'm here, I'm in this moment. What are the things that I can do to connect back to me to give myself the energy and the clarity that I need in the space to relax to then give myself time to move forward next? So give yourself that time, whether that's a day, that's a weekend, that's a week.

• 4:38Lewis Howes?

  Give yourself that time to be in an off season, to relax, to recover, go to the spa, you know, hang out, do the things you love. Because if you're not doing the things you love and you're just feeling overwhelmed, what's really the point anyways? Is it worth it to feel overwhelmed all the time? Or is it more meaningful to live a rich, full, fulfilled life? So that's the next step. And then you want to get back on to your vision and have a clear plan of action moving forward. But the key is when you move forward, you've got to start letting go of the things that overwhelm you. So my good friend, Chris Ducker, said he has this thing about having a virtual assistant in a team. And he talks about the three lists of freedom. And I want to apply this to whenever you're feeling overwhelmed.

• 5:22Lewis Howes?

  So if you're feeling overwhelmed, my friend has these lists. So this is your homework for the weekend. It's to create three lists. Take a piece of paper and write one, two, and three, you're going to create three lists. The first list is the things you hate doing every day. Okay, so write down all the things you hate doing. I hate cleaning, I hate cooking, I hate doing emails, or I hate social media, whatever it may be. The three things you hate in your business or your life, or whatever it may be every single day. The second list is the things you can't do yourself. So the second list is the things you cannot do yourself in your business. So maybe that's graphic design, or that's coding, or editing something. Things you cannot do yourself is list number two.

• 6:06Lewis Howes?

  The third list is the things you shouldn't be doing. So I'm doing all this content and editing myself, but I shouldn't be doing that because I can hire someone else to do that. And I can use my time more effectively to build the business or whatever it may be. So those are the three lists. I'm actually going to offer you another list and say the things that you love to do. You're going to write down the list of all the things you love to do because these are the things that you should be focusing on. So the first three things, the things you hate doing, things you can't do yourself and the things you shouldn't be doing. Write down those lists, but then write a list of the things you would love to do. You love doing every day, you love working on that inspires you, that gives you energy because that's going to fill you up.

• 6:51Lewis Howes?

  And allow you to stay in the season longer. You're not going to need to be in an off season and feel overwhelmed. Okay? So write those lists. I would also even as an extra credit bonus list, write the things you can automate. So write the things you're currently doing that you could start to automate and figure out a process of automation. And maybe that falls into hiring someone to support you with that process. And it all is about having the team around you guys. Again, if you're feeling overwhelmed, it's usually because you are trying to do it all yourself. And are there any other loners out there that feel like they've got to do it all themselves? I am a recovering loner myself and I understand where you're at.

• 7:34Lewis Howes?

  But it's hard to leave a big impact on the world and build a business that you want to build and scale alone. So it's time to start finding people to support you. You've got to make that hire. You've got to find people to support you, whether it's part time, full time. Okay? And then you hand them off these lists and you say, these are the things I hate doing. These are the things I can't do myself and these are the things I shouldn't be doing. And also say, here's a list of the things that we need to automate. You've got to bring great people on board if you want to be great. And this is all about how to let go of overwhelm and enjoy the off season.

• 8:12Lewis Howes?

  Hope you guys enjoyed this five minute Friday, a little more than five minutes today, but I'm enjoying this and it's been a lot of fun hearing your feedback about this. Again, it's not worth it feeling overwhelmed, guys. So allow yourself to be in the off season, allow yourself time to reflect, time to recover, time for your body and your mind to heal, your emotions to recover. You know, you go training so hard all season long, you need a little break from time to time. So give yourself that time to break, to reflect, and then create these three lists of freedom, the list that you also love doing of everything, and then the list that you can automate. And go ahead and post a picture online somewhere. Tag me at Lewis Howes on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram with your three lists and your

• 8:57Lewis Howes?

  bonus two lists, and that's your homework for the weekend. This is Five Minute Fridays. My name is Lewis Howes. Thank you guys so much for joining me. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.