You are E.N.O.U.G.H - How to move past Overwhelm and Perfectionsim

In this powerful episode of the Glass Ceiling and Sticky Floor Podcast, I open up about my recent struggles with overwhelming stress and anxiety. With raw honesty, I share how these hard days are signals—reminders that I'm often trying to do too much. 

But today, I'm going deeper. I discuss why many women feel compelled to take on this burden at the expense of their mental and physical health, and what we can do to change it. I introduce the acronym E.N.O.U.G.H., a transformative process for managing overwhelm and recognizing your inherent worth:

• E is for Embrace Your Limits
• N is for Nurture Your Well-being
• O is for Optimize Your Priorities
• U is for Understand Your Worth
• G is for Grace Over Guilt
• H is for Honor Your Progress

In this episode, you'll learn how to reset, breathe, and realize that you are enough just as you are. I shares personal anecdotes from my childhood and adulthood, shedding light on how deep-seated people-pleasing tendencies can impact our lives. I talk about the importance of self-compassion and offers practical strategies for prioritizing self-care, understanding your value, and celebrating your progress.

Remember- You don't have to be all things to all people—you are exactly where you are meant to be.

Tune in for an honest, insightful conversation about growth, self-worth, and overcoming the need to be perfect.

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Transcript

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Recently, I have had some really hard days, like really hard days, tears. Streaming down my face, anxiety waking me up at night, hungry, but too stressed, eat hard. And if I'm honest with you, and if I'm honest with myself, These days that are like this. It's a signal. It's a signal that I'm usually doing too much. Now as a driven ambitious woman with two small kids who are off for the summer, no less. I sometimes bite off more than I can chill. I want to be all things to all people all of the time. I want to make people happy. I want to. Just do as much as possible. But that's not just the reason for this anxiety. Right. And today I want to go deeper than that with you. I want to peel back the onion and I want to talk about why many women, myself included feel that we have to do all of these things at the expense of our mental and our physical health. And I want to talk about, of course, what we can do about it. And y'all that starts with understanding that you are enough, that you are E N O U G H enough. Now, because this is a podcast and you're likely listening to me with an earbud in your ear. You can't see how I actually have this written out, but you must know that enough is actually an acronym for this process that I work through. When I am feeling overwhelmed with all of the things. I'm going to put this in an email for everybody and I'm going to blast it out. So, number one, if you haven't signed up for my email list, make sure that you do that so that you can get this handout and see exactly what I'm talking about. But of course, I'm going to fill you in here. So the E in enough stands for embrace your limits N is for nurture your wellbeing. Oh, it's for optimize your priorities. You is for understanding your worth. G is for grace over guilt and H is for honor your progress. Now, just remember the word enough. And you will be able to take the breath to reset and to recognize that you are good. You are enough. You don't have to be all these things to all people all the time. And you are exactly where you need to be. You are listening to the glass ceiling and sticky floor podcast. The podcast that will empower you to shatter limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities. So you can live your best life. I'm Erica Rooney and I'm on a mission to bring more women into positions of power and keep them there. I'm obsessed with all things, growth and abundance. And I'm here to talk you through the tried and true secrets to get you to level up your career and your life. We talk about the hard stuff here. Imposter syndrome, perfectionism, fear and burnout. So pull up busy. Pop in an ear, bud. And let's dive in. All right friends, if I'm going to be really honest with you. And if I'm being really honest with myself, And peel back that onion, open up the Komono. I've gotta be honest about why I feel the need to be all things to all people all the time. Why do I take on this pressure and this feeling that it's my responsibility to be that person that carries all the weight. That takes on the responsibilities for other people's happiness for their results. And if I'm honest, I think it goes back to growing up in a split divorced household, where I spent my days going back and forth between different houses, with different expectations, different ways of living and different personalities. cause y'all I would learn to quickly adapt myself to adapt to my way of being to fit in to whichever home I was at my mom's or my dad's. And that whole act of me molding myself to fit the environment I was in is what I think started my personal sticky floor of people pleasing. Now I wanted so desperately to keep the peace to feel loved and accepted wherever I fit in. And that meant at one house that I had to be the kid who did a, B and C, but then the next day, when I went to my dad's house, I was X, Y, and Z. So I felt internally, like I had to shift who I was to be a good daughter who was loved, who was praised. And that meant being all things to. All of my parents and y'all, I had four of them. So as I grew older, that. Belief that sticky floor really solidified for me. And I continued to search for the love and acceptance by continuing to mold myself being whatever they wanted me to be. Even if it wasn't the best for me, even if I didn't want to, even if I didn't like it. Now over time, I've reclaimed my agency. I have grown y'all, but because this is something that started back when I was probably two years old, subconsciously this idea of being all things to people. Everywhere all the time, without regard to what I needed or wanted, sometimes it still rears its ugly head. I mean, that's the thing about sticky floors. Y'all this is always a work in progress. But my job now, now that I'm an adult, when I've got the knowledge and the education and the tools, my job is to remember that I am enough just as I am. And that first step is To embrace my limits. There are only 24 hours in a day. Y'all I need at least eight hours of sleep, eight hours for work. And then I have eight hours to do all the other things. That's chores, kid responsibilities, fixing dinner, cleaning, working out. It's putting together the edits for my upcoming book. This podcast, the digital course, laundry shopping, walking the dog. And I'm sure as you can imagine, this feels like we've already used up the eight hours that I have already. So while I embrace my limits and I accept that I can't do everything. And when I do this, I can step away from this idea that I have to be all things to all people. I know that I can not get up every day at four 30 in the morning, which all that's my best time of day. And stay up until 10:00 PM watching TV with my husband. I just, I don't have the energy. I can't do it. I have to pick one or the other. Now I love this quote. You can't ride two horses with one ass sugar bean and not y'all know it. It's from the movie steel Magnolias. And while that quote is more about making decisions and picking one course of action, it also serves as a reminder for me that I can't be in two places at once. I have to embrace my limits. And as for nurture your wellbeing now, in these moments where I'm, ping-ponging from activity to activity, from work to kids to, to my to-do list, it is so easy to get overwhelmed and then burnout. But when you nurture your wellbeing, you can take the time you need to prioritize self care. And we all know the saying about the oxygen mask on the airplanes and how you have to put yours on first. And that's because your wellbeing is For sustainable productivity. I also liked the one that if mom ain't happy, nobody's happy. And it, it really is focusing on putting your needs first. All right. Y'all oh, is for optimizing your priorities. You have to focus on what truly matters. Now I tend to use the Eisenhower matrix when I'm feeling overwhelmed and struggling with prioritization. And if you're not familiar with what the Eisenhower matrix is, it is the four box quadrant that helps you identify. Urgent and important tasks versus urgent and not important tasks or not important tasks and not urgent tasks. And then not urgent and not important. And what do you do with those? Right. So of course you must focus on urgent and important that is done. First hard stop. Then you can move on to the important, but not urgent. And of course use my four P principles. To help you decide what you can perform, pause, passer, purge. And if you're not sure what I'm talking about there, I want you to head to an earlier podcast episode where I go all in on my four P process. Use that method to help you identify those core tasks in your values and let that guide your actions. The you in enough is for understanding your worth. Now, this is a big one. Huge, you must know that your value is not tied to your output. Your value isn't tied to your weight or your looks or how much you accomplish. It's not tied to the size of your house or how many zeros you have in your bank account. You are worthy and enough just as you are. You are just as worthy on the day. You lay in bed, struggling with anxiety and depression, as you are on the days where you are rocking and rolling and getting shit done, you are worthy. G is for grace over guilt. Be kind to yourself. This really ties in with perfectionism and boy I'll do ambitious driven women struggle with perfectionism. You will miss deadlines. You will forget a meeting. You will submit a document with a typo. It's going to happen. Just embrace it. We are human and we are faulty at our core, but you know what? The good thing about all that is that you're going to mess up. The good thing is no, one's perfect. And that means no one likes perfect. Because it is so freaking unattainable. So embrace that in perfectionism, embrace the mistakes, the failures and hold grace for yourself. Replace your self criticism with compassion. And allow yourself the space to make mistakes. And then y'all, we just learned from them and we move on. And then finally H is for honor your progress. And y'all, I'm a dang productivity coach and I over-scheduled myself. I miss meetings and deadlines and I mess up all the time. This is a lifelong journey. But what I can do is reflect on how far I've come. I can reflect on the growth. I can think about that years ago. One simple mistake would totally derail me. Now I can acknowledge the mistakes. I can take a look, figure out where it was. I went wrong so that I can grow and I can fix it and try to prevent it next time. It's all about taking that, miss that mess up that mistake and reframing it, taking it from the negative to the positive. And here's the thing. I never want you to skip this step of honoring your progress. Because you deserve to celebrate your achievements no matter how small they are. Progress is progress and every step forward counts. So on the days that those tears come and the anxiety keeps you up at night. I want you to know that you are receiving a signal. It is your body telling you slow down. Reassess girl. And remember that you are enough, you are E N O U G H enough. Embrace your limits, nurture your wellbeing. Optimize your priorities. Understand your worth. Have grace over guilt and honor your progress. I promise you, if you pick just one of these steps, one, you will find more space in your day to actually make progress. You will rebound faster. You will go farther. So stop pushing yourself to the limits. And celebrate all that you are and all that you've accomplished because girl, you are doing the most. Now, if nobody's told you today, You are worthy. And I want you to sit with that. And I want you to think about that just for a minute, because you are take that time, do this for yourself. All right, friend, if you haven't already dropped that five-star review, make sure you do it today. It truly helps it land in the hands of the woman that needs to hear it the most. And don't forget, jump over to my socials to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even tick talk. But until next time, remember the only ceilings that exist are the ones we place over ourselves. Let's smash through them together.