How to Stop Overthinking

Photo by Yosep Surahman on Unsplash

Overthinking is a bit of a misnomer. It isn’t just that one is thinking too much. To be more specific, it’s about thinking in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you think (couldn’t help it) about it, you can see the logic in this.

When you’re thinking about what to eat, it’s the same process as when you’re thinking about what to study in college, who to date, and the direction you want to take in a project. It’s all the same thinking.

Some of these decisions require more time and more information in order to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

However, when we don’t stop thinking, which is what we typically think of as overthinking, it’s an indication that the satisfaction and peace of mind you want hasn’t come as yet. But what we don’t know is that more thinking is not what this moment is calling for.

I once shared that the reason we overthink is due to the fear of missing out on what we want, making a mistake and landing ourselves in a crappy situation.

But in order to actually know whether our decision was the right one (which is a tricky metric to decipher because sometimes what was harder was better in the long run), you have to actually do something and see what happens.

Then if it isn’t working out, try something different. No one ever gets everything right on…