Overthinking – Easy Steps To Get Out Of Your Own Head!

It’s 2020, and the world is on fire. Literally and figuratively. Covid-19, quarantine, BLM, wildfires, an economic collapse – we’re living with so much uncertainty, that going through an identity crisis or three at the moment is normal. And unfortunately, overthinking is normal too.

If you’re an overthinker, I’m especially proud of you for making it to September without a meltdown. Overthinking is seriously one of the most draining but overlooked habits. We believe that it serves us, that it will save us from pain. That it will protect us from shame and judgement. That it will save us time, energy, and money:

“If I can just overthink this, I’ll find the perfect answer”.

In reality, it’s very expensive to overthink. Because it costs us our peace of mind.

While it’s good to stop for a second and consider what you’re about to do, nobody asked you to invite to entire cast of “Judge Judy” to take a seat in your brain for a 3 week long episode of “what-if” that airs when you should be getting your R.E.M-sleep.

Here’s the thing about overthinking

1. Overthinkers actually don’t find answers quicker than other people do.

2. For the time you spend thinking, you’re not acting

3. The mental energy you spend on thinking, is mental energy you could have put into something else. Like baking a cake. Or making money.

Instead of overthinking – Act your way to an answer

Overthinking costs us growth. Instead of thinking your way to an answer, act your way to an answer. Yes, you’ll make more mistakes, but you’ll learn much faster. Instead of sitting there, paralyzed for a week thinking if you should do A or B or any other letters of the alphabet, just go for one of them. If it didn’t work – great – what’s next?

We overthink because we try to get it perfect from the beginning, so we don’t make mistakes and feel ashamed. Well guess what, making mistakes is inevitable no matter what we do, so we might as well embrace them.

You’ll never feel ready

Stop considering if you’re ready or not. You probably aren’t. So now that we’ve decided you’re not ready, let’s agree on acting before you’re ready.

Taking action before you feel ready is so important, because you’ll most likely never feel like you have your life 100% together. Trust that you’ll learn as you go! That’s what I’m doing with this blog, in my relationships, when moving to LA to pursue dance – trust that you’ll figure it out! Because you will. (You might even want to go and read “Scared Of Making The Wrong Decisions?” when we’re done here)

Better done than perfect

What tiny not-perfect step can you take today? Writing one e-mail, doing one phone call, signing up for a program, there is for sure something that can be done today.

TRUST me, I know the feeling of being deeply concerned about how other people will interpret what I say, what I do, what I post or not post – but somewhere along the way of my personal journey (if I may share that for a second) I decided to stop trying to avoid feeling that way, and instead focus on not letting my fear influence my actions.

It’s okay to do things while being scared.

People will always talk sh*t

Yes, if you start a podcast, a vlog, a business, an App, a blog (hi, hello!) or whatever it is… there will always be people talking sh*t. Instead of fearing it or trying to avoid it, what happens if you just expect it? Now that you expect it, how dangerous is it then in reality that there are people out there rolling their eyes at you? Not really that dangerous compared to the fact that you just survived a global-f*cking-pandemic, am I right? You don’t like everyone, not everyone likes you, and that is okay! I’m not very religious or spiritual, but I do believe that the people you want and need in your life will be attracted to what you’re doing.

Just keep swimming like Dory from Finding Nemo.

Overthinking is second guessing

We believe that overthinking will make us more confident, because we’ll be more sure of the decisions we make. In my experience, it feels more like second guessing myself and being indecisive.

The bar theory

You’re at the bar, and on the other side you see this very attractive man. Your first instinct is to go and talk to him. But then you start overthinking. Should I go? Do I look awkward? Am I pretty enough? Should I say hi, should I say something funny, why did I wear this outfit…. and you end up staying in your seat.

Overthinking can easily make you stress yourself out. Therefore, taking action and following your gut as fast as possible before the overthinking kicks in, is so beneficial.

Let’s wrap it up with quote

“Overthinking is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere”.

I know times are crazy and that we spend a lot of time in our heads at home, but there really isn’t anything in this world that can trouble you as much as your own thoughts. And I promise, you’ll gain so much confidence when you start acting your way to your answers by following your gut and intuition. You got this!

xoxo

Also, if you would like to get a little love note (aka. a notification) when there are new post’s on this blog, feel free to go and give a thumbs up to the FB page here or follow me on Instagram