One of the greatest causes of stress in our society today is overthinking.
We are overthinking everything.
We spend more time in our heads than we do out in our real lives.
It really creates roadblocks for us.
You cannot be confident,
You cannot be productive,
You cannot get clarity without clearing your mind of that overthinking.
So let's talk about what we need to do to get our overthinking under control.
And once we figure out how to do that,
Some action that we can take so that it can become autopilot for us to move from thinking to doing.
Because anytime we're just in thinking mode,
Nothing's really getting accomplished.
You should spend a little time in thinking mode and then you need to get into action mode.
Why?
Well,
Here's why.
If you're thinking of something,
There comes a point where you have the information you need.
You know what you need to do and you can step away from thinking and you can go do what you need to do.
And it's done.
But if you don't ever step out of that thinking mode,
And that happens a lot of times when we think we need more information.
That happens when,
Hey,
I'm just going to watch one more webinar.
I'm going to take one more class.
I'm not ready yet,
But I'm almost ready.
I got news for you.
You're probably ready.
You just haven't been willing to take it from thinking to action to make it happen.
Another way we get stuck in this thinking mode is with one question that comes up sometimes and it stops us in our tracks.
What if?
What if it doesn't work?
What if I don't really do a good job?
What if they don't like me?
What if I don't get the job?
What if I don't get that new client?
What are they going to think?
It's interesting how when you ask that one question,
What if,
We never answer it.
And because of that,
We stay in thinking mode because all that happens is we spiral.
It's like water going down a drain.
One question starts and all of a sudden seven questions follow and they're never positive.
They're always what could go wrong?
The moment we get into overthinking mode and what if mode and what is everyone going to think mode,
I guarantee nothing that follows those questions is ever going to be positive.
It's always going to be,
Let me find 14 reasons why this may not work.
When you're in that mode,
You don't give yourself a chance for a positive outcome and you're going to stay there.
The only way that you can move into doing mode,
Taking action mode,
Is to stop yourself in your tracks.
I'm going to call your own BS here.
You ready?
When you are doing this,
If you stop and think about it,
You're fully aware you're doing it.
You need to become hyper aware,
Conscious of what's going on here.
Oh my goodness,
I'm overthinking,
Aren't I?
I have a friend who says that all the time.
She'll talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and at some moment if you don't say anything she'll go,
I'm really overthinking this,
Aren't I?
Yeah,
Yeah,
Yeah you are.
See,
You're trying to solve this,
But you've made it this now so it's a lot more difficult to try and figure out.
If you would have been willing to just keep it that,
That's really simple to figure out.
Because guess what?
What if it doesn't work?
Let's answer the question.
Then we do something else.
What if I don't get that job?
Then you keep looking and maybe you find a different or better job.
What if I don't get that client?
Well then tomorrow you go and get this client.
What do you need to do?
When we focus,
And this is in thinking mode,
When we focus on what could go wrong,
It is impossible to have a positive outcome.
Because think about it,
When you're on the road driving and you look at something,
Even if it's for a couple seconds,
You turn back around and you need to correct.
Why?
Because we go where our attention goes.
We go where our thinking goes.
So if you're always thinking about what's going to go wrong,
Whether it's even true or possible or not,
That's the direction in which you're always going to head.
We've got to flip that.
So let's flip the switch here.
The next time you become aware that you are stuck in thinking mode,
I'm overthinking this,
I probably have enough information,
What if something happens?
Well if this doesn't or does happen,
We go do that.
What's our plan B?
That's all that fixes this.
What's our next step?
What do we do with the information we just learned and use it to serve us instead of getting our own way?
Become aware of when you do it.
This is a simple visual,
You can make up your own,
But I want you to take that moment and consciously in your brain see yourself holding up a stop sign going,
Stop.
Just stop.
Because like any other cycle,
If it's spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and you don't at some point stop it,
It's not going to end.
It's not going to resolve itself.
It's going to just go until it's exhausted.
And isn't that true of our overthinking?
Sometimes we just think and think and think and think and think and then we go,
I'm just,
I'm exhausted from thinking this.
You've got to stop the merry-go-round and step off.
But that has to be a very conscious choice.
If you make that conscious choice enough times to stop yourself when you're catching yourself being in thinking mode and you make a conscious choice to literally step off that merry-go-round,
Only then can you move into action.
