Overthinking

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.”


Overthinking leads to inaction.


The pandemic of analysis paralysis is common among overthinkers.


This is the act of being completely immobilized because of the analysis of every possible outcome to an action. 


Even though the best thing to do is just to take action and see what happens. Thinking about all the possible outcomes is not useful because when it comes down to it, only one outcome will happen. It is for you to find out what that outcome will be.


But I can guarantee you, that outcome will not happen if you continue to think. 


I get stuck in bouts of overthinking quite often. All of the possibilities of outcomes circle through my mind. But they lead nowhere. Overthinking causes:


  1. Loss of sleep

  2. Inaction: less time doing, more time thinking

  3. More stress than simply taking action would


Last night I found myself locked in on a topic that did not change the outlook of anything. It was something that didn't affect my health, safety, or daily agenda at all. So why do I care? 


The mind gets caught up on little things. You can travel down a rabbit hole thinking about anything if you think about it hard enough. There are an infinite amount of questions to be answered. But the thing you need to realize is:


YOU WILL NEVER ANSWER THEM ALL.


Some things are meant to never be uncovered. They will forever be a mystery and you must accept that. You can never go into the mind of every single person on this planet and find out what they are thinking in a given moment. It is all a big secret. So you must only control what YOU can control.


In the words of Charlie Babbitt,


“IT’S NOT A RIDDLE, RAY! YOU’LL NEVER SOLVE IT!”


In the movie Rain Man, Ray is perplexed by the “Who’s on first?” skit by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Ray is unable to solve the riddle of “Who’s on first?” and he is constantly anxious and stressed because of it. Obviously, Ray’s mind does not work the same as everyone else, but it shows just how engrossed the human mind can become in something when it is constantly trying to solve the problem. 


If you are constantly looking for answers to things you can’t solve, you will drive yourself mad.


This is where anxiety occurs.


ANXIETY IS CAUSED BY WORRYING ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN’T CONTROL.


I’m not talking about the anxiety you feel when you are anticipating something that pushes you outside of your comfort zone. That is good anxiety. It is a naturally occurring force that prompts you to act in a certain way. I am referring to the anxiety that bogs down millions of people. The anxiety that drives people to become clinically ill because they have become obsessed with fixing problems they cannot fix.


At some point, you just have to let it go. You have to realize that you are a tiny speck on a 3,959 mile wide planet with nearly 8 billion people. There is NO WAY you can control everything that happens. So to calm your mind, you must just let it happen.


LET THE UNCONTROLLABLES BE UNCONTROLLED.

Your mind will thank you.


Find out what matters and what doesn’t. 


The funny part is that most things don’t matter.


Be aware of what does, and let those things fill your thoughts.


Stop overthinking.


***


Thank you for reading!


My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.


This is The Exploration.


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