To The Over-thinker

Turn your brain off. Just kidding, that's insensitive. In all seriousness, I understand what you're going through. Overthinking for me is the norm. I overanalyze everything and before I know it, I'm up against this massive situation that seems real and dire.

I notice it happens when I have too much time on my hands. When I have too much time on my hands, I'll sit back and think about all of what I haven't done, what I haven't accomplished, how big the gap is between where I am and where I want to be. I spend hours by myself contemplating how I'm such a failure and look for all the ways to beat myself up over being in these circumstances.

After a substantial amount of this, I'm in complete despair. I feel like the world is ending. I've made every mistake in the book. Maybe I should go back to school or something. What was I thinking?

Wouldn't it be great to be in so much action that the time spent thinking is only just enough? Imagine your experience of life if you weren't in your head so much.

Ladies and gents, I know what that feels like too! At the beginning of this month, I was in DC with my coach colleagues at the start of weekend one of the next DC Summer Program. I had a goal to achieve by 12 pm on Sunday and holy crap, I was in so much action. I was on calls, I was sending messages out, I was posting on social media, I was supporting and being supported by my team. It was a weekend jam-packed with action and energy and PRESENCE. I was so present and focused that I had no time to make things in my life significant and burdensome.

Sometimes I think that I can't handle a ton of action in my day to day. I need to rest, I need hours between calls, I can't go out after a day full of "work". I predict a lot and it gets in the way of my growth. I relate to myself as incapable of taking certain things on in my life, so I take my rest and I don't "overschedule" myself and I get the results to match.

On the flip side, when I'm in consistent action, the results show up in direct proportion. I don't have to make myself wrong for not being in consistent action. But I do get to choose whether I take the action sufficient to my progress or whether I spend my time in my head, listening to that pesky inner critic.

If I ask an overthinker what they get out of overthinking, they'd probably say "nothing" and I challenge that. As an overthinker, I get to put off taking action, putting myself out there and getting rejected. So on some level, even though overthinking is a torturous act, I still get something out of it that's familiar.

Action can seem daunting where overthinking is familiar. That's all it really comes down to through the lens of simplicity, the choice that's familiar or the choice that thrusts you outside of your comfort zone.

From one overthinker to another...start saying yes more. Start creating routines that fill your time with experiences that'll stretch you. Get excited about building up stamina to be in massive, consistent action. Trust me, you'll love it.