You know that sense of overwhelm that comes when you have SO much on your plate? At times it feels like there are so many demands, that it’s paralyzing! It’s in these moments that using the “10%” strategy is really effective.Here’s an example. Most often when we plan our work, we think of the big projects that require our time and energy. If we are busy anyway, the thought of another piece of work goes over like a root canal! There is a tendency not to do anything, because we haven’t learned the skills of ‘chunking it down’ into bite size pieces.One of the tricks that has worked really well with my clients, is to say, “If you could just commit to doing 10% more on this project, what steps would you take?” Once our overwhelmed and overworked mind knows that we only need to put in 10% more effort, it relaxes, and resistance is released.

On last month’s “Get Out of Overwhelm” call for the Ultimate Wealth and Success Circle, this was a huge hit. Almost all the callers could relate to not knowing which steps to take to end their burden of overwhelm. They loved the 10% Solution!

Below are the two main things the 10% solution works for.

1. You are stuck and can’t imagine doing one more thing! Being in this state causes your brain to shut down as you lose sight of your vision and goals, and usually make decisions that doesn’t serve. Here’s what you can ask yourself…..”If I could just do 10% more towards this goal, what would that look like?” For example, that may be just making 3 phone calls, or spending 20 minutes de-cluttering your office. By giving your brain the limit of ONLY working 10%, it says yes and allows you to take the action.

Wanna know the secret? For most of us, when we get into action, we are going to keep on moving! If I told you to run a marathon tomorrow and you weren’t in shape, you probably would look at me like I were a lunatic. That’s how it feels often times in business. We have huge goals which seem very far away, and our ‘business builder’ muscles are some times out of shape. But if I told you to only walk 2 blocks, you’d agree and when you got there, you’d probably say, “Yep…I can keep going.” By lowering the bar of what you expect of yourself, you actually have more chance of success because you’ll find momentum and start meeting small goals which will lead to the fulfillment of the bigger goals. How cool is that?

2. You are resisting making changes. You aren’t alone…we all have those parts in us where we know what we SHOULD be doing, but for some reason, we can’t give up our habits that don’t serve us as well. Some people call that self-sabotage. The 10% solution here works great because it goes with the resistance and doesn’t fight against it. Instead of the black/white solutions that most of us come up with that ultimately fail…ask yourself, “If I was to just make a 10% change in this area, what would be different?” The secret here again is in tricking your brain to SLOWLY move into standing in your power and creating success habits.

So if you are stuck…lower the bar! Give the 10% solution a try and let me know how you like the results!

About the Coach:

Therese Skelly is an expert at helping people grow their businesses from “The Inside Out” which means that she helps them get past their stuck points, create an identity of a business owner, and find ways to allow their businesses to serve their lives. In addition to specializing in small business marketing and development, Therese has been a psychotherapist, trainer, and consultant.

In addition to coaching and speaking, Therese is the Director of the Shared Vision Network in Phoenix where they specialize in providing professional business development and networking to business owners and entrepreneurs. Therese lives in Scottsdale, AZ with her two boys, Daniel and John.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 8:13 am and is filed under Mindset, Podcast, Success Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.