You're Overthinking It. How to Stop and Take Action

Today I’m going to explain why we overthink things. Then I’m going to show you how to stop it and take action.

If you don’t stop or realise you’re overthinking things you’re going to miss out on a lot of opportunities, fail to make progress and be trapped in the never ending cycle of thoughts and eventually run out of time.

The problem is most people don’t have the methods, tools and/or beliefs to stop overthinking.

Overthinking is one of the greatest crimes we commit against ourselves. We rob ourselves of opportunity and in turn we deny the world our valuable contribution

In this article we will cover:

• Why we overthink things
• How to realise when you’re overthinking
• How to overcome the anxiety and doubt
• How to take action with confidence and consistency

If you want to break the cycle of overthinking holding you back then keep reading.

Why we overthink things

Before we can solve the issue of overthinking we need to understand what is that’s causing us to feel and act this way.

There can be a number of reasons but the most common symptoms and triggers I’ve experienced and learned about include.

Anxiety

This was a big one for me, I knew I was anxious and specifically I was anxious and afraid of running out of time or wasting my time on a dead end endeavour.

Anxiety is fear of a future threat which can include the fear of failure, fear of creating or arriving at the wrong outcome.

Anxiety prays on our fear of uncertainty. We can’t read the future and that scares us so much it causes us to freeze in our tracks, unable to move forward.

Doubt

We might feel we’re not skilled enough or don’t know enough or doubt if things will work out.

We doubt ourselves, our vision for the future, the path we take, the choices we make, the process and so on.

We don’t believe things will work out so we never start. We never get started because we don’t believe but the problem is most things that move us forward in life have an element of uncertainty attached to them.

My biggest doubt has always been in my decision making. “Am I making the right decision?” “Is this the right way?” “Is this the right thing to be doing.” I’ve had doubt whilst making this newsletter.

Too much

Simply too much, and there can be too much in a number of ways.

It can be too much information and stimulus. We have so much information and stimuli flowing in that we just can’t process it all. There’s information that conflicts with each other, different viewpoints, different data and we can’t take it all in and digest it fully.

We might have too many options. The classic choice paralysis. When we have too many options then how do we know which one to take. Especially if they all look like good options, which is the best?

Having too much can be more of a hindrance then having too little.

No sense of urgency

We have no reason to act now rather than later.

There’s no pressure from inaction so when faced with all the doubt and anxiety we choose not to act. There’s no perception of a real threat or loss.

The cost of inaction is seen as a lesser loss than the cost of acting and things not working out.

Why would we expose ourselves to more loss when the alternative is a lesser loss. The problem is, you still lose either way but the lesser loss teaches you nothing and will probably leave you with a sense of regret later down the line.

Which is it for you?

So before we can fix things it’s best to identify which one of these areas we talked about is most relevant to you. Because:

If you can figure out what the problem actually is then that’s 50% of the problem solved

So ask yourself “what was the common feeling, situation or trigger between all the scenarios when I’m overthinking?” That will be the root of your problem.

How to realise when you’re overthinking

Now before we get into tackling the problem it’s important to realise when we’re overthinking versus just being thorough with our endeavours.

Doubt vs fact checking

There’s a clear difference between doubt and fact checking. For example, if you find yourself checking yourself against other people’s opinions then you’re overthinking it. If you’re checking your information against other data and studies that’s fine.

Ensuring accuracy and correctness is important but don’t mix that up with measuring your ideas against someone else’s view, especially if they have no data to back it up.

Past experience

If you’re grappling with a problem, project or task and have evidence of success related to that thing in a past experience then trust in that experience.

Our lived in experience is more of a true indicator of what will work and what won’t then any external information at hand.

This might not be true for everything until the end of time but until there’s evidence from experience that something stops working or is becoming obsolete then trust in the experience you’ve had before.

Apples to Oranges

For example, if you’re comparing data and information but you’re not comparing like for like then you’re definitely overthinking things.

Analyse what you’re pulling and contrasting against each other. If it’s not closely related then you’re probably expanding the scope of things too much.

You might be self sabotaging by purposefully trying to find flaws in unrelated matters instead of observing the data and information you present objectively.

How to overcome anxiety fear and doubt

Now we know what causes overthinking and if we’re overthinking or not, let’s discuss how we can tackle these issues.

Have a proven track record

In my experience the best way to build trust in yourself and the remove all anxiety and doubt is by simply having a proven track record of success.

You’re experience and success lays the foundation for the road ahead. If you have undeniable proof that something has worked once it’s very likely that it will work again.

Now if you don’t have the best track record, a series of bad events or failed projects then that’s fine because you’ve have one other thing that can help.

Wisdom, because wisdom is knowing what not to do and what doesn’t work. Learning from past mistakes and experiences in some ways is more valuable than the victories.

Memento mori

Everyone dies, we all meet our end some day. Eventually our time is up. A bit of a morbid concept to live but a powerful one when you realise it’s either take the chance now or risk running out of time.

Anthony Hopkins has a brilliant quote:

“We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.” ― Anthony Hopkins

He’s right, through overthinking we’re essentially speeding up the process by giving more and more time away.

We don’t know how much time we have so better to tackle our doubts and fears head on with action then to paralysed by it.

You cannot control the outcome

Whether you’re building a new business, competing in a race, starting a new project at work or something else. The moment you realise that you cannot control the outcome of these endeavours the better off you’ll be.

You cannot guarantee the business will succeed, you don’t know if you’ll win the race and you can’t promise the work project will be done on time.

Once you realise that you cannot control the outcome and that the only thing you can control is the input then the better off you’ll be.

We cannot control the future, the world is too unpredictable and life too chaotic to be possible. Instead if we focus on what we can control which is the present and our actions now and accept that we drastically decrease the effect of anxiety.

How to take action with confidence and consistency

I’m going to share with you now my framework for beating overthinking. This is a framework of truths actions that allow me to beat my overthinking and make progress each and everyday.

You only know what you know now

There’s a point where more information and data gathering becomes pointless. There’s diminishing returns to having absorbing more and more information. And having more and more data becomes unwieldy, irrelevant and distracting.

At some point you’ll have to take the first step. So better to step forward with the knowledge you have now and learn from the experience along the way.

You’ll find new information and find out very quickly if something you have with you in irrelevant or incorrect.

The best way to learn is through experience so take what you have now and go forward with it. Test it, learn and adapt.

Accept that you will get things wrong

It’s inevitable. Especially when tackling something new or trying something different. You’re going to make mistakes, and that’s fine.

Does any human learn to walk without falling over? So why hold ourselves hostage to perfection when making mistakes is the best way that we learn?

Some of the greatest thinkers and scientists to ever exist have made mistakes and been proven wrong.

Act with best intentions and accept mistakes are normal. The only true failure is a failure to learn from our mistakes.

Commit to an output

I set a target to deliver one newsletter and one YouTube video every week. I cannot control how well these pieces of content will received but I can control whether I send them out each week or not.

Rather than focusing on external metrics of success which I cannot control (video views, email signups etc) I focus on an output metric (did I publish one video and one newsletter).

I show up, I put in the reps, I commit to that level of output knowing that if I put in the work then over time, coupled with analysing and adjusting things along the way, I will see returns.

Treat life as an experiment

The scientific method is a practice used since the 17th century to solve some of the most difficult problems and improve our understanding of the world around us.

The process can be broken down into five simple steps.

1. Make an observation
2. Ask a question
3. Generate a hypothesis
4. Test it and measure the results
5. Draw and conclusion and share

The illustration below explains it with a great visual example.

If we treat the different things we do in life as experiments then we only stand to gain from each experiment.

Every experiment tells us something about our assumptions, teaches us something new and gives us quantitative data to make better choices.

If we approach life with a curious mind and experiment we can remove the emotional constraint that holds us back on taking action.

Thanks for reading

I still battle with overthinking from time to time. I had a little battle when writing this newsletter, but by applying the framework I described above I am able to move much faster and get more things done.

I hope sharing my experience will help you in some way and I hope you break finally the wheel 👑🐲

Thanks for reading.