Ever gone to an all you can eat buffet and lived to regret it? Haven’t we all!

Did you go with great intentions of being controlled and limiting your choices?

Maybe you found yourself overwhelmed for choice and decided to have a little bit of this and a little bit of that?

When you walked back to your table – did you think “Wow – that really piled up?”

Did you have to balance the plate all the way back to the table?

Did something fall off the plate, disappearing under another diner’s chair – never to be seen again?

When you munched your way through it all – how did you feel?

Chances are you found yourself in a food coma, feeling uncomfortable and needing to undo the button on your pants.

You’re not alone!

Recently I’ve been using a new tool I’ve developed with women to understand what is really on their plates of life.

We look at their personal plate, their work plate and their family, friends, and community plate.

When I introduce this tool – a lot of women say, “Oh yeah, like a pie?”

But it’s not quite like a pie because generally pies are limited in the capacity they can hold. The difference is that a plate can be filled right to the edges and then piled high towards the sky!

Yeah Mel, I know what you’re getting at. But I already know I have a full plate – so what?

have you ever experienced that sense of overwhelm that makes you feel like everything is a problem and you are the victim to your circumstances?

What if I told you that when thoughts of overwhelm enter our mind, when we think about all the things we have to do, when we ruminate over all that we haven’t achieved – that we are actually experiencing a goofy loop.

A goofy loop is when we hear ourselves repeating the same thing or versions of the same thing over and over again in our minds.

It might sound like……..

“I will get my act together.”

“I will be more organised tomorrow.”

“I will say no next time.”

“I’ve got to fit more into my day.”

“I’ll eat in the car on the way to the next meeting.”

Think of a goofy loop a bit like a stuck record. Sometimes you have to nudge the record player a bit to get the record back on track.

The plates of life exercise acts as the nudge. It helps us get the thoughts and patterns out of our minds and down on paper. From there – we can suddenly see it for what it really is.

In coaching I help clients use tools, strategies, and questions to help nudge them from their ‘stuck’ place. When we ‘do the work’ we get feedback, we get information, we get points of intelligence, and we get a clearer picture.

When we use the process of getting above our thoughts, we are suddenly in a position to make better quality decisions for OURSELVES!!!

So, with all this in mind, let me nudge you out of your goofy loop by asking – what’s currently on your plates?

Spend 5 minutes with a blank piece of paper – draw three circular plates put your name near one, work near one and family, friends, and community near the other. Then download your thoughts about what is currently on each plate.

Simply sit back and visualise what it looks like. Is it full to the edge? Is it piled high? Is it overflowing? Is it just right for you? How does it make you feel? Do you feel sick when you look at it? Are some plates fuller than others? Which plates do you want less on? Would you like more on a plate?

Look at your page and honestly check yourself – what needs to stay on the plate? What can you put back for later? Does anything need to go straight into the bin? Can you share some of it with someone else at your table? Can you offer it to someone else not at your table?

My point is, what are your options? Can you shift it by yourself, or could you benefit from some help from others?

Then challenge yourself – by choosing one item on one plate, then do something with it that is going to nudge you closer towards what you need.

Remember, none of this is about perfection. This is about the exercises we can do to create emotional and mental muscle memory. Each time we try, we are winning, we are learning, we are growing, and we are developing.

What’s not to love about that?

Book in a Connection Call today to talk about your ‘plates of life’ and how you can find ways to shift your thinking closer to what you need.