The Antidote to Overwhelm

by Becca Syme

Genres: Psychology, Writing

364 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2024

About the author

Becca Syme holds a master’s degree in transformational leadership and has been a success coach (primarily utilizing the Gallup Strengthsfinder®) for almost fifteen years. She’s coached 4,700+ individual authors and creatives through her Write Better-Faster and Strengths for Writers classes & coaching cohorts: six- and seven-figure authors, major award winners, midlisters, and new authors alike. Becca is the host of the YouTube QuitCast channel and a mystery author. She lives in the mountains of Montana.

Reviews

[Julie]

I backed this project on Kickstarter late last year. I’ve been part of Becca Syme’s “Better-Faster Academy” since 2021, and I always like to support her and her projects. The Kickstarter rewards were released in two phases: the first was the “energy pennies” card game, which came out in February with a companion guide. The second phase was the Antidote to Overwhelm book. The first half of the book was new content about the causes of overwhelm, and the second half of the book was a lightly edited and updated re-release of the energy pennies companion guide. So in a sense, this book was a half-reread for me, and I knew that going into it. That said, I found the energy pennies guide very helpful, so I didn’t mind reading through it again. While I’m not currently in overwhelm, I like the idea of having simple actions that I can choose to do that can help me generate “energy pennies” of various sorts (action, rest, thought, spirit, courage, and joy). And, in fact, back in February I customized the deck and put together a spreadsheet of activities I’d like to try doing on a daily, weekly, and monthly frequency. I really should refocus on doing them more intentionally. As Becca will be the first to say: learning is not doing, and reading is not practicing. I really should be practicing more and reading less. (Also, I know Becca went through burnout while writing this book, and I hope she’s feeling better now.)

[M.J. Compton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning was a bit rough for me to slog through, but the second half of the book more than made up for the slow start. I was able to find "pennies" ideas to add to my list of possible artists' dates for the coming year. The book is a goldmine of ideas...and permission to not like some activities.