I’m a massive culprit of over-thinking. I can literally think an idea to death in a matter of hours. I’m talking about the best-idea-ever at breakfast becoming the worst idea in the entire world, what was I thinking, by lunch time. It might seem like a productive way to get rid of bad ideas, but it gets rid of a lot of good ones too, and means I waste an inordinate amount of time thinking.
It’s not just ideas. My husband despairs of clothes shopping with me because I’ll try a few things on, decide I like them, and have talked myself out of making the purchase by the time we get to the tills. Just by thinking about what else might be in the other shops, do I really need the item, what do I have that’ll go with it, is it the right shade of navy, do I have time to bring it back, is it too expensive, is it too cheap??? So by the time I come to pay, it’s all too difficult and I end up going home with nothing. And you can bet that next week I’m opening my wardrobe and thinking that that top would’ve been lovely with these jeans for this occasion…
I realised a few weeks ago that I was doing it again. I’ve got a simple, straightforward idea for a business venture that I’m really excited about. It’d been in the pipeline for a month or so, but because I’d had brain fog, I hadn’t had the brain capacity to think about it too much. Then when the fog lifted, my brain went into overdrive! My simple, cool, fun idea was complicated as all hell and dull as dishwater within not much time at all! Aaaaarggghhhh!!!
Luckily I caught myself and took Kimber out for a walk to talk myself off the ledge. I went back to my notes from the beginning and reconnected with the original idea. And realised that I was making too much of it. I made a decision to keep it simple and progress slowly rather than trying to figure out how it’ll all work in a matter of minutes. And so calm has been restored and the idea is cool again. Whew! And afterwards I went clothes shopping. But decided that I’d better give myself some over-thinking avoidance strategies. So I set myself the goal that I’d only buy something that would enhance my wardrobe. And I gave myself a price point that I wanted to pay. And guess what?! I bought two items that both enhance my wardrobe and were almost bang on my price point.
If you’re prone to overthinking, what are your strategies for dealing with it?
*This blog post first appeared as one of May’s Sunday Sunshines. If you’d like to receive more like this, on a weekly basis, along with a fun cartoon to get your week off to a happy start, sign up using the box to the right of the screen :-)*