When Do You Reach Full Mental Capacity?
It’s a hot topic among my friends and some clients - September seems the month of almost full capacity.
Now, I am not talking about mental capacity as in the capacity law for community care, I am talking when our capacity to intake information, do more things, engage in more activities is full.
Think of your mind as an empty glass - you pour in work, family, friends, hobbies - and you’re almost at the top, them someone else pours on their emotional issues, or a job or task to help them out - and you’ve reached overflow. Your glass cannot take any more.
When we work at full capacity we burn out, we know this from experience and seeing others burn out. It’s unsustainable to work at full capacity for great lengths of time. So the balance is to be aware of what capacity level we are at, what is the norm for us, and at what point it gets to be too full.
Let’s do an exercise - grab a piece of paper and a pencil/pen and fill the page with a drawing of a glass. Now at teh bottom write your HAVE TO’s - the bare necessities of your life, the things have have to do to keep you and any dependents alive. Then add the next layer, things that aren’t for keeping you alive, but have to be done (cleaning, laundry, life admin, time with people). Then the next (hobbies, decorating, celebrations) - how much is left in the space? Then add everything else, anything else you can think of that you have in your life.
What could be taken out or delegated to others when you have more things in your glass?
It’s worth noting how you feel when you add certain tasks to the glass - do they bring you joy or make you groan? Are there any things that you don’t want to do, ever?
At what point does it all become too much? Can you feel that?
If so, amazing - this means when you start to reach this point you can address the stuff and ask others to help or see if you can just not do it at all. It’s a nice little emotional exercise to help you prioritize.
Let me know how you get on - as always I love your feedback!
L xx
