Six tips for dealing with FOMO and overwhelm as a Celebrant

The internet has hands down revolutionised the way we learn, hasn’t it? The ways with which we can instantly invest in ourselves and our business through personal and professional development are simply incredible.

There is absolutely zero excuse any more for not being able to grow, flourish and thrive as a human being and a business owner, using all of the resources, free and paid, that can be found online.

Along with the wealth of resources available, there are SO MANY experts, gurus and inspirational people from all walks of life who have powerful messages to share, along with their own wisdom and knowledge. It’s a wonderful time to be a business owner with so much instant help and resources at our fingertips.

But if you’re like me, perhaps you’ve seen a bit of a downside to having such easy access to resources and people, like this. I got to a point where I was starting to get too overwhelmed with all of the messages I was receiving, with all the knowledge that was being placed under my nose on a daily and sometimes hourly basis!

And because of how social media is, the more you like and engage with posts of a certain type, the more you start to see other posts of a similar nature. So it got to the stage where there was so much noise coming from the internet and my inbox that it was beginning to stress me out a little, lot.

There is so much good that arrives in my inbox, that is shared on social media and in the Facebook groups that I belong too, but amongst the good I began to notice this damaging pattern with many of the messages being shared.

The overwhelm wasn’t just being caused by all of the information being shared but also the underlying pressure of buying peoples’ products and services. The messages that play with people’s vulnerabilities and make you feel that if you didn’t buy X, Y or Z, then your life and business would suffer without them.

Only the other day I watched a video that came up on my FB feed, which I immediately wished I hadn’t. It was of a FB marketing guru, who was driving a Bentley, showing off his luxury offices, whilst sharing how he made all his money. His actual message boiled down to ‘‘if you don’t sign up to my course to learn how to make the best of your FB ads, you’ll never drive a Bentley like me, your business will fail, you’ll go bankrupt and you won’t be able to afford food.’ Okay, so he didn’t quite say those actual words, but that pretty much was his message. And he’s not alone.

There are too many gurus and experts out there trading on this kind of vibe and fuelling people’s fear of missing out – FOMO, and all of this contributes to general business overwhelm. The best thing I have done is to hide ads on FB and Insta, purge my inbox and only remain on mailing lists of people who don’t make me feel guilty or fearful about NOT buying their products and services and whose voices I truly can’t wait to hear, whether it’s in a blog post, video or email. And most importantly, whose products and services I do and most likely will buy!

TOP TIPS FOR REDUCING OVERWHELM & FOMO

I have come up with six top tips to help you to reduce the overwhelm when it comes to your business and the decisions you have to make.

1. Prioritise your needs

Everyone has something they need to learn or to do for themselves or their business, but the best way to work out what needs doing is by making a list and prioritising the most important things. What do you want to learn? How do you want to learn it? When will you do it? What does your business or you need right now?

I just saw recently that a business expert who I follow on instagram has a course on how to write a book in 40 days. OMG. I nearly lost the plot (no pun intended!) This was so exciting for me to see, as one of my big goals is to write a book. The old me would have been frantically weighing up how and when I could make this course happen. However the new me knows that I am not ready to write that book yet and because I have prioritised what it is that I need to work on right now, it’s helped me not to feel like I am missing out on this knowledge, and I will learn it when I need to. Prioritising your needs helps you to stay resilient and stops you from grabbing the next shiny new object that comes along, especially when you don’t need it or the time isn’t right.

2. Set a budget

I try to make an annual budget for how much I want to spend on self development and business development. This means I know that I am putting money aside for the things I have already prioritised and have already established as being something that needs investment in. A budget helps you to stay on track with your priorities.

3. Remember that courses, products and services are always available

The thing about FOMO is that it’s an irrational fear. It’s a fear of something that doesn’t even exist. What are you missing out on exactly? Courses, products, services and resources will ALWAYS be available. So if you decide not to take a course or buy a product at certain time, it won’t be going anywhere! You will be able to do it at another time, when and if the time is right for you. So don’t feel pressured into buying something that you’ve not prioritised as a necessity for yourself or your business. Like me with the book course I saw recently. I know I can join it at a later date when my book writing becomes a priority. It won’t be going anywhere, and if it does, there are other book courses.

4. Make time for your learning

Another thing that contributes to business overwhelm is not making time to learn the things that you want to learn or need to do. The overwhelm sets in when you can see all of the information in front of you or can see what it is that you need to do but you don’t take the time to implement it. I try to have one full day a month where I check in on the course that I am on, or implement what I have been learning about.

5. Filter out the noise

If someone who you are following is not making you feel good about yourself or is contributing to your overwhelm, unfollow them. What’s more important? Missing out on their offerings or your mental well-being? There is much to learn, yes, but learning comes in many forms, and is taught in so many ways, by lots of different and varied people. I always say, ‘your vibe attracts your tribe,’ and this is so true. I was temporarily in a Facebook group for a business guru. Actually, I left the group as quickly as I entered it. I could not stand the vibe of the guru. It was just ‘not me’ and whilst she had lots to share and gave lots of value to her group, I didn’t want to learn from her. It was nothing personal whatsoever, hell, I don’t even know her, but I just didn’t gel with her vibe or her teachings. And I hand on heart honestly feel the same about my own celebrants collective platform. If you don’t like my vibe or my style and I don’t make you feel good about yourself, then filter me out! Remove yourself from the group and de-register from the mailing list, cancel your subscription!

We don’t need to listen to what EVERYONE has to say, just to those who we truly want to hear. And those people who you click with will most likely provide you with what you need, so you’re fear of missing out will be unfounded. So get unsubscribing from those email lists, unfollow those accounts on Instagram and just tune into the people who make you feel good about yourself and whose message and vibe are just right for you.

6. Don’t take on too much at once

And lastly, the overwhelm becomes truly real when you try to learn too much or do too much at once. Renovate your website, take part in a course, overhaul your Instagram account, start your business blog. Seriously, stop it! One thing at a time. Go back to the first step on this list and prioritise what needs to be done and do that one thing first! Otherwise you will be exhausted, deflated and quite possibly defeated in trying to do it all.

I hope these steps really help you to focus on your celebrant business and your personal well-being so that you can reduce any overwhelm that you experience and start feeling happier and more secure with your decisions and your to-do list!

Come and join me in my Celebrants Collective Facebook group for fun, advice, support and camaraderie. And if you’d like to take your celebrant career development further in a nurturing, pressure-free environment then you might want to come and join me in my Celebrant Collective’s Membership group, where we work together to be the best celebrants that we can be by helping ourselves and supporting one another.