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Writer's pictureDan Ballard

From Overwhelm to Freedom

Updated: Jan 17, 2023


We are in the age of information overload. Control your attention, stop listening to the advice and opinions of those not living the lifestyle that you desire. Too much of the wrong information from the wrong source will set you back years.


Overwhelm compounds bad things.

Creativity releases + opens up a lot of good things.


Our brains weren't built to process this much information + stimuli we're under.

The affect of too much information = overwhelm.

Everyone in a rush to be first and right, at the cost of truth.


Truth is, Our society is over thinking, over consuming, over weight, over burdened.

"Information is in abundance, execution is scarce"


Read that again.


If we have all the information we need,

and the best resources available.


Then why are we failing to implement?

Why are we stressed, rundown, burdened?

Nothing affects our confidence with life, more than falling short.

And the feeling this creates within is like wearing a weighted vest inside.


Now, what separates the downward spiral, and the upward climb is VISION!



When you're stressed and overwhelmed you make very different decisions.


Your vision is impaired, and life tends to close in.

Left unchecked, this compounds.


You can't be, what you can't see.


Your mind is wayward, your body is tense, your energy is resistant.

Your are spirit within a body, that is choking.


By the end of this letter you will hopefully hold a pragmatic vision forward.


Pragmatic- dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.



The new 1% are literate and pragmatic in the new world.

They are:

- Self-educated

- Highly skilled

- Emotionally intelligent

- High energy

- Focussed on internal control

- Less invested in external

- Works from anywhere

- Knows how to build social leverage for success.


At the foundations of this literacy is ordering yourself with the flow of wellbeing.

Without it, that's a recipe for distress (overwhelm).


Here's what you ought to know...

(Wellbeing made simple):




Resources Your essential needs to thrive: • Self-Awareness • Food, Water & Shelter • Health & Vitality • Sense of Purpose • Motivation & Enthusiasm • Social Support & Community

Skills Your capabilities that enable you to successfully meet life’s challenges: • Everything happening inside of you and outside of you • Emotional Intelligence and Stability • Adaptability to Change • Creativity and Innovation • Any Vocational, Personal or Academic Skills


Challenges Situations you are faced with on a daily basis that demand you to respond: • Everything that is happening inside of you and outside of you • Relationship with yourself • Relationship with partner, friends, family, colleagues and community • Any event that is planned or unplanned • Any event that is favourable or unfavourable.

In this definition, Wellbeing is experienced when you are able to meet the challenges of life, whilst sustaining or increasing your resources and your skills.


The opposite of Wellbeing is distress. Distress happens when life’s challenges outweigh your resources & skills to meet the demand.


So I ask you, and I'm upfront about it.


Where are you weak?

Where are you not being resourceful?

Where are you not taking support?

Where are you not practicing trust in life?

Where is your energy leaking?

Where are you not grateful for your challenges?

Where are you resisting change?

Where are you allowing change?


When you can't cope with change, overwhelm lerks in the shadows.

The shadow is the land of the unconscious.

The part of you hiding, waiting for integration.


You'll see all that you have to get done, and overlook the first step.

You'll look for easier options, leading to more problems.

You'll harbour passive aggressive energy and tension.

You'll be influenced by your emotions, and easily led astray.

You'll compare your starting point, with others middle point.

You'll play finite games with stress, when life is an infinite process.


You have to break this matrix.

The conditions, pressure and frames that were placed on you.

The world is getting faster, information access accelerating.

Your brain wasn't made for this.

You need to get clever.

A clever man works smarter, not harder.

But you must also be creative.

The creative man doesn't work at all.


Creativity- An antidote to fear, the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.


You break free, when you remember you were born free.

You were born worthy, but self-care is a practice- a becoming.

When you learn how to become, and embody the creative man.

When you realise, as within, so without.

And you breakthrough- because you took action on the truth.


Some doors only open from the inside.

In my work I have identified the fundamentals, a baseline for this man.

My life, healing and prosperity depended on such foundations.

I knew what I wanted, how I desired to live, and how I felt about helping others.

I got myself right, I got myself leveraged, and I made wide, deep impact.


This creative man, understands everything is energy.

And your mental landscape dictates the quality of your life.

Mental energy management will make or break:

  • Your Productivity

  • Your Creativity

  • Your Quality of Life

Embodying the Pragmatic Creative Man

You move smoothly, when you could rush.

You work when it's time to work.

Rest when it's time to rest.

Play when it's time to play.

When immersed in the present moment, there is no difference.

Live when it's time to live.


You must set boundaries, and check in with yourself to know when its time... (time for what?)


Fill Your Mind

  • Books

  • Learning

  • Socialising

Empty Your Mind

  • Long Walks

  • Journalling

  • Meditation

Use Your Mind

  • Focus

  • Writing

  • Creation

"Peace of mind is peace from mind.

Peace is happiness at rest.

Happiness is peace in motion" - Naval


At the end of the day pragmatically you understand that your speed doesn't matter, forward is still forward.



You know that you are not getting out of life, alive, but you have time to be ALIVE.


The goal is a means to an end, the practice (your process) is something you can derive motivation, passion and meaning from.


You have to be willing to dance with life, and realise it is an opportunity to create a meaning.

When wellbeing flows, we are ALIVE.

When we resist wellbeing, we DISTRESS.

Although I do not have the right space here,

to take you through my entire framework.

(That is within my greater offerings, which is life-changing).


I simply offer these 7 fundamentals.

  1. You must take aim, because life forms around your aim, It is fundamental.

  2. You must set a goal around your aim, but watch your attachments, because no plan survives contact with reality.

  3. Your plan, creates clarity.

  4. Reduce your friction by taking action. A bad decision, is not making a decision when you know what you are avoiding.

  5. Do it for the process- the infinite game, because it's an antidote to fear, to overwhelm, to weakness.

  6. Your long game, surmounts your immediate pleasures, delay the shit out them- as much as you can. You'll be free without them.

  7. Live in the hierarchy of your values, don't waiver.

Big 💜 Dan

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