You Don’t Have To Do It All On Your Own – It’s Okay To Delegate
It is not going to be easy and it will also be one of the most mindset-shifting activities you’ll ever have to do: letting go of control and accepting that you aren’t an infallible superhuman.
Stop holding on to tasks that distract you from your main goals. Stop trying to people-please your way to success by never saying no to anything. Stop trying to ‘have it all’ and be it all to everyone. Stop being a victim of hustle culture.
I get it—you want to be ‘great’. Good enough just isn’t enough. If you push yourself a little harder this time, read a few more self-help productivity books, and improve your time management skills, you’ll have just enough hours in the day to complete your to-do list. But that belief will keep you stuck and drain your energy and your self-worth.
When you let go of tasks that aren’t in alignment with your goals and values, and wholeheartedly believe in yourself, your workload will feel a little lighter and a lot more fulfilling.
It doesn’t mean you were wasting your time before. It means you learnt a valuable lesson about what prioritising the tasks that matter looks and feels like for you.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, burnt out, confused or anxious about the things you have to do in your life, you’re hurting yourself every single day by continuing to power through your shopping list of tasks when your body is telling you ‘no’.
The truth is that you are not meant to do everything, and not everything needs to be done by you. That’s why it is so powerful when you have clarity over your life’s mission, understand your values and invest in your personal and professional relationships: you’ll know exactly what’s important because you know what distracts you from your purpose.
Yet, the more you try to do everything yourself when you could pass it over to someone else, the more you are robbing yourself of the support and relief you truly need.
It is there and available for you.
There are people who want to learn from you, grow with you, and even build on your ideas so that your vision can be expanded to higher heights than you ever dreamed of.
And the longer you stay tense, clinging tightly to your to-do list, stuck, overworked, resentful, a bottleneck, a single point of failure for the team, the longer you will keep yourself trapped in a never-ending hell of never feeling good enough and never reaching your full potential.
- Maybe if you stop saying yes, you’ll let others down
- Maybe you’ll feel guilty when you stop trying to do it all
- Maybe things will feel chaotic when you start delegating
- Maybe you’ll delegate to someone who doesn’t meet your high standards
In no way does that mean you are a failure. It means you’re holding on to beliefs that convince you that your worth is tied to things you personally produce.
Maybe
That’s not success. Perhaps, that’s just control, perfectionism and a direct route to burnout.
At the end of the day, you only have limited time and energy in your life. You need to choose how you are going to spend both of them. When you give your energy to tasks that would be better served helping someone else meet their goals, you are wasting the time you have available to work on the goals most in alignment with your truest self.
When you understand that delegation is good not just for you but for your wider team, the less anxious you will feel about letting go of control. It takes real strength to see the potential in others and give them the opportunity to flourish too. You will be able to grow your team, grow your business, spend more time with your family, engage in your long-forgotten hobbies and feel like you are part of the world.
And the world is so beautiful.
You’ll start to see your role in life. You’ll see that asking for help is not actually a sign of weakness but a courageous act of wisdom. The people around you will feel empowered because you have demonstrated not with words but with actions your trust in their ability to do great things.
You’ll know that you’re hurting yourself and you’re hurting your team when you choose not to let go.
You don’t need to carry the burden alone.
You are not a superhero who can shoulder every one of the world’s problems.
It is not a noble feat.
It is not your responsibility to say yes to every task and hoard all the company’s projects, burning yourself out in the process, because you don’t want to let others down, because you’re scared of missing out on a promotion, because deep down you believe you are not good enough to pass up on the opportunity to prove your worth.
It is your responsibility to set boundaries and understand that you only have a certain amount of mental and physical capacity. By saying yes to one task, you are ultimately saying no to another and that is okay.
Choose who you are going to share your workload with and empower them to work with you on a shared vision of success.
Then let go…
A little bit at a time
And see how much more gets done with a little bit of help
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Related Posts:
- 5 Steps To Delegate As A Perfectionist And Prevent Burnout
- 5 Delegation Mistakes Every Perfectionist Manager Needs to Avoid
- The Truth About Recovery From Severe Burnout
- 87 Affirmations For Perfectionists Who Are Tired and Burned Out
- 55 Boundaries Journal Prompts You NEED To Use