Cindy Ransom LMFTOct 02, 2026
October - Overscheduling & Overcommitting
Talking about saying yes too often this month
Overcommitting & Overscheduling
October is about overcommitting and overscheduling.
Not the version where you finally get organized, the real one. What happens in the half second between being asked and answering. Whether the yes is actually a decision or just a reflex you've stopped noticing.
Let’s chat more about it. Glad you're here!
The Automatic Yes
Four women can end up in the exact same overloaded week, and get there through four completely different roads.
🌙 If you're an overthinker, the yes doesn't come from the request. It comes from checking what everyone else seems to be handling and deciding you can't be the one who's behind. You've agreed out loud before you've finished the thought that got you there.
☀️ If you tend to put everyone else first, guilt shows up before you've checked what you actually have room for. Pausing to ask yourself first feels selfish, like you're making someone else's need about you. So you skip the pause.
🌊 If you tend to avoid, the yes is fast, just to make the asking stop. The real decision happens later, when the commitment is due and you cancel last minute or quietly disappear instead of saying you never wanted it in the first place.
🪐 If you're a perfectionist or tend to overproduce, a full calendar reads as proof you're still relevant. An empty hour feels like falling behind, so you say yes to protect that, then push through exhausted rather than admit you couldn't handle it.
Same overloaded week. Four different roads to get there.
It's not your time management. It's your specific pattern, sitting in your calendar.
Which one are you?
Take the 2 minute Quiz at MyStressZodiac.com 🌙☀️🌊🪐
A client came in a few weeks ago describing her week the way most people describe a to-do list, flat, factual, no complaint in her voice. Work deadline. Her sister's move. A commitment she'd made to a friend's fundraiser. A dinner she didn't want to attend but had already said yes to.
I asked her one question. What would you have had to say no to, in order to say yes to any one of these.
She sat with that longer than she expected to. The honest answer was an evening she'd actually wanted to keep for herself, and she hadn't even registered that as a real option when she said yes to the fundraiser.
That's not a scheduling gap.
That's a pattern that's gone unnoticed for long enough that saying yes stopped feeling like a choice at all.
We didn't spend the session rebuilding her calendar. We spent it building the pause that comes before the next yes.
If that's a thread you want to pull on with real support, I have availability for new clients in Florida and New York.
Cabbi Brooks, LCSW, is a therapist, author, and founder of Empowered to Prosper. She works with high-achieving women who are so used to carrying everything that they've stopped noticing it's optional. Her session drops in the The Stress Zodiac™ Collective Classroom October 22nd, and it's a direct one, we talked about what she calls the Superwoman Schema, the belief that being needed everywhere is proof you're doing something right instead of proof you're drowning.
If you’ve been wondering, what is the The Stress Zodiac™ Collective I figure first I will clarify what it is not!
It's not a course.
It's not a content library you fall behind on.
It's the place where you actually have access to me and to a room of women doing this work in real time.
Every month brings a live “Sign In” coaching call and Office Hours, both recorded so you can go back and access them anytime, along with tools built around that month's theme.
And when you're deciding whether to come to an event or workshop, members get a discount on that too.
It's not one more thing to keep up with. It's the resource that keeps you connected to me, and to each other, between everything else. All from the comfort of your phone and the Skool app.
New members join at $39/month or $397/year.
The Stress Zodiac Retreat™ still has room!
If you're a Collective member and you've been on the fence, you get a special discounted rate on top of that, plus the ongoing support of this community while you get ready for it. Worth a look if the timing's finally right.
Three days, a small group of women, a house built around actually resting instead of performing it. A $200 deposit holds your spot, and the next three to book choose their room first.
Learn more about attending or supporting the event!
For those of you who may not know this about me, in addition to being a stress and anxiety therapist, I also specialize in OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
This month in honor of OCD awareness month, I'm running a virtual live two-hour workshop Thursday, October 22nd at 7pm EST.
Understanding OCD covers what it actually is, how it gets missed for anxiety, and how to support someone who has it. Recording Included if you can’t make it.
Overcommitting isn't about having too much to do.
It's about how fast the yes leaves your mouth before you've checked whether you meant it. More on that all month.
💬 If you'd like to work together — through the Stress Zodiac Collective, coaching, or a therapy session — my inbox is always open.
Big Hugs,Cindy
📩 So You Don't Miss Anything
To make sure you continue receiving your monthly newsletters, Stress Zodiac insights, and tools, please:
➡️ Add hello@news.cindyransomlmft.com to your contacts
➡️ If you're on Gmail, drag this email into your Primary tab
Gmail will ask, "Do this for future messages?" — click Yes and we'll stay connected. Thank you 💛✨
Cindy Ransom, LMFTSpecializing in stress & anxiety · Founder of the Stress Zodiac