Remember the old Cadburys Creme Egg advert?  How do you eat yours?  If you know it you just heard it in your head as a slightly posh male voice – Hoow doo Yoou eat yours?  Admit it, it you did!!

How Do You Eat Yours – How to avoid overwhelm

So what has that got to do with learning – well Cadburys have just announced a new recipe for the chocolate and when we are learning something new, it’s easy to be overwhelmed.  You get a new textbook and thumbing through it you think I’m never going to learn all of that.  Maybe you’re starting college and the lecturer gives an overview of the year ahead and it feels like climbing K2 without any oxygen. Perhaps you’ve started in a new job and you’re being trained in on the job by the old hand who has been there forever and forgets that you’re a newbie. Or maybe you’re a new parent who as just brought home their new bundle of joy and the enormity of the responsibility for this tiny little mite (who didn’t  come with a manual) hits for the first time.

It’s ok to feel like that. It’s normal to feel like that when we look at the big picture – the entire year ahead in school or college, the need to be an expert in the new job, the responsibility for a child until they reach adulthood.  When we look at the big picture it can seem daunting but as I say to my Hummingbirds – how do you eat a burger?

You never stuff an entire burger into your mouth in one go – you eat it one bite at a time. When we break a large task into bite sized, doable pieces and focus on each individual piece one at a time, then the task becomes manageable and easy.  The sense of overwhelm dissipates and a sense of accomplishment replaces it – and that feels good.

So the next time a task feels overwhelming ask yourself – Hoow Doo Yoou Eat Yoours?