Put your hand up if you’ve ever thought you’ve been “over-thinking” something?
I’m reasonably confident everyone’s hands will have gone up.
We’ve all been there and are at times.
Easily done.
But there’s a powerful realisation we can make about how else we could view “over-thinking”.
Another word we could use that could help us question our approach.
Guessing.
Because, ultimately, to some degree, that’s what we’re doing.
Where we have all the facts and the data, we usually don’t need to think about it too much.
How much time do you spend thinking about stuff that is just a fact?
Not much.
If you knew for absolute sure that the thing you’re considering doing would lead to the outcome you desire, would you do it?
You apply for that promotion, you’ll definitely get it.
You run that new project at work, it’ll definitely be a success.
You launch your ‘side hustle’ or set up that business you’ve dreamt of and it’ll definitely work.
You ask that person out and they’ll definitely say yes.
You go for that workout, you’ll definitely feel better.
You change your eating and you’ll definitely lose that weight and have more energy.
You join RISE (www.myrise.co.uk/apply) and it’ll definitely work out brilliantly.
And so on.
If the outcome was certain, we’d do those things we’ve put off, wouldn’t we?
When we keep thinking about things it’s because we lack confidence in the outcome being what we want it to be.
We want certainty.
We want guarantees.
Uncertainty makes us feel uncomfortable.
We put things off.
We keep “thinking about it”.
Overthinking.
Guessing.
Even saying we’re overthinking is guessing because we have no concrete definition of what is “thinking” and “overthinking”?
Usually what underpins this guessing is going too many “steps” down the line.
We can usually feel pretty confident about the result of the next step, based on experience.
But when we’re thinking 10 steps down the line, we lose that confidence.
The correlation weakens.
So, when we feel we’re ‘overthinking’………..
When we’re putting off decisions………..
When we’re not doing what we feel we should (or, deep down, want to)………..
Can we just take that ‘next step’?
Book a next Session.
Make a somewhat better food choice next time we’re faced with it.
Just take the first step of the project, talk to our boss, register the company name or whatever else it is.
If the number of steps down the line we’re thinking of leaves us in uncertainty………..
Leaves us, essentially, guessing………..
Pull it back a number of steps to a decision you have sufficient confidence over.
And just do that thing for now.
Much love,
Jon ‘I saw Steps play at the end of my Fresher’s Week at Uni’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
