How do you handle overwhelm? I was speaking with a friend about this recently. Sometimes there are seasons with too much. Too much to do, too many things on the to do list, too many projects at work, home, needs from children, parents, family. The too many things, the too many tabs open in your brain, create a big elephant on your shoulders.

I’ve re-purposed an old post that I wrote at a time when I had been eating an entire two ton elephant that had been hanging out, quite heavily, on my shoulders for far too long.

I want to preface this by saying your elephant can be caused by anything and at anytime. I even remember feeling it way back when in college during midterms or exams, needing to study, but also having extracurricular activities, family obligations, finalizing resumes, all those things. It can be simply a busy season in life. Eating an elephant is not easy or fun, but sometimes it is the only way. It is also not for the faint of heart, the lazy or for folks who want to stick their heads in the sand thinking it will simply go away.

But here is the thing that I have to tell you. You can do it. You can eat the elephant. Whatever your elephant may be. Yes you can and if you do have an elephant looming overhead or hanging around weighing you down, then I want to tell you the simple steps that helped me. My hope is they might help you or someone you may know.First of all,

Give your elephant a name. Sounds ridiculous, right? Hear me out. There's something about identifying your big bad thing that helps make it a little lighter or smaller. Think of something clever, a little Tongue in cheek or light-hearted to take the awfulness out of it. I didn't plan on naming the elephant. A name just happened with. no thought and it actually helps. Giving it an identity can make it seem more like an object or just a thing. That helps bring the thing into something that is identifiable and not this esoteric mist following you around like one of the death eaters in Harry Potter. The name has helped me when I needed to categorise time or compartmentalise what I was doing for a chunk of the day. I could write it in my calendar as working on "_____". It brings it down to earth and so it can be reduced to a size smaller than you. Giving the elephant a name makes it easy to put it in calendar, talk about it, pray about it and only give it the amount of attention you determine to give it at any given time.

Do Three Things each day. During a particularly overwhelming time in my life I found that as long as I could accomplish three things every single day then I was good. I am a list maker and there is nothing more fulfilling than marking something off a list. I think some of us are just born that way. However, when there are too many things to get done in a day that is humanly impossible, you feel like a failure and the two ton Tessy elephant has you buried before your first cup of coffee. Here is the thing to do.

Do three things off of the list. Just three. At least three.

I'm not sure what it is, but the number three is the perfect number. It is like Goldilocks, it's not too few and not too many. It is just right.

Accept help. I promise this is the healthiest thing you can do for you and anyone around you. If you are drowning under water and you have people reaching out to grab you or throwing you a life ring, you absolutely need to take and grab hold.

And listen to this because it is important. It's not all about you. You have people in your life who want to help, so look at it as if you are doing them a favor.

They want to help and you need the help so it's a perfect match. Here is my example.

I had a season when I was busy working at a new job during the week, while also orchestrating packing and moving from our big family home to something smaller, - as a single parent while one of the boys was in the midst of a gruelling and time-consuming wrestling season. That packing and moving was an enormous elephant. I remember leaving early (if you have a wrestler you know it’s ridiculously early!) on a Saturday morning to support and cheer on at wrestling matches and when I finally came home later that evening, I would find that my friends had been in my house packing china, removed and wrapped pictures off the wall, or boxed the contents of the linen closet. I'm not sure how I will ever re-pay these friends, and I actually hope they will not need the kind of help they poured onto me, but they were right there eating that elephant for me and with me. And I was not too proud to accept it.

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I shared a little bit of an aha moment on Instagram stories this week and my thoughts on this whole midlife thing and our age.

Hope you’re with me on this one.