Have you ever looked at your to-do list with a general feeling of malaise? Have you had periods of feeling tired, overwhelmed, anxious, bored and generally zoned out of life? As previously written, these symptoms can be an indication of living outside of your true values. But what if your life is aligned with your values and you are still feeling this way? You may be surprised to find that your to-do list is the culprit of these yucky feelings.
When we decide to complete a task, for ourselves or someone else, our self-confidence becomes inextricably linked to the completion of that task within the agreed upon time frame. If we complete the task on time, we feel energized, productive and positive. Our energy is increased for the next task on our list. If we do not complete the task, we start to create stories in our mind to justify the late deadline. A significant portion of our energy becomes allocated to telling this story, while still trying to get the work done. Even when the task is eventually completed, our good feelings regarding the completion are significantly eroded.
If you chronically overfill your to-do list, you are setting yourself up for low self-confidence. It is impossible to feel good about yourself if you are missing deadlines, creating stories and struggling to get work done. If you find yourself over-committing and under-delivering, know that there is a simple, albeit not easy, way out of this destructive habit.
To increase your self-confidence, take 100% responsibility for your to-do list. From a healthy, 100% responsibility perspective, we say yes to only those assignments that we are able to realistically accomplish in the agreed upon timeline. When we take more than 100% responsibility, we are being a martyr. Martyrs take on too much work because they feel that no one else will do the work as good as them. When we take less than 100% responsibility, we are being a victim. Victims blame others for putting too many items on their to-do list, without actively accepting responsibility for saying yes to more assignments than can be realistically completed.
Take 100% responsibility for your to-do list today and see how this one, simple change will have you immediately feeling more positive, energized, engaged and confident.