Do you overanalyse information, question or second guess your decisions? Does this cause you to miss out on opportunities or keep you stuck in your career/business or life?
Some people are very analytical and need to thoroughly understand information and the consequences before they make a decision or embark on something new.
There is a place for analysis – it is a great trait to have as it helps you to make conscious decisions and choices. On the other hand, other people do insufficient analysis and this can lead them to make decisions which they regret later or which have significant negative consequences for themselves and/or others.
A Time and a Place
There is a time and a place for analysis. Analysis, calculation, weighing up options, understanding consequences and reading information is all the role of your conscious mind. Your analytical brain loves to do this – it needs to make sense out of things. Yet, if we get stuck in analysis by paralysis we end up with inaction. We can get overwhelmed, we can start to worry or get afraid, we can put off taking action, think that it is all too hard, we can talk ourselves out of things, question or second guess ourselves.
Inaction or regret?
The end result is either inaction or regret. Inaction means that nothing changes; there is no movement or inertia. You remain stuck where you are – in your comfort zone of perceived safety. And it is only a perception. After all, how safe is it to keep doing the same thing, not learning new skills, not growing as a person and stopping yourself from being as successful as you want to be? How soon will this perceived safe strategy make you, your skills and your career/business obsolete?
Regret is a result of decisions and choices which are made out of fear and second guessing. Instead of following our instinct as to what is right for us, we override it with too much overthinking. Then later we wish we had made different choices.
If you truly wish to be even more successful and model highly successful people, use their strategy for success. One of their key traits is trusting themselves and their decisions. Yes, they do gather the information and facts they need to make a decision. Then once they do have that information, they trust their instinct to make a decision that is right for them, and quickly.
Stopping the Overanalysis
To move from inaction to action, you need to identify and address the emotions, insecurities and self doubts causing the overanalysis and, therefore, the inaction. For example:
- do you fear making the wrong decision?
- are you afraid of failure, success or rejection?
- do you believe that you are not good enough or worthy?
- is anxiety or worry keeping you stuck?
To avoid making regretted decisions, never make a decision or choice from fear, uncertainty, self-doubt or scarcity. The worst and most regretted decisions are made from these negative frames of mind.
Trusting yourself is the key to making decisions with which you are happy and that are right for you. To fully trust yourself you need to be free from your fears, self-doubts and insecurities. Once you are, you have the clarity, self-belief and confidence to back yourself 100%, you follow through on action and achieve success far more easily.
Are you stuck in overanalyis and inaction? Or are you trusting yourself to take action towards a more successful career/business, relationship and life?
Dr. Vesna Grubacevic is an author (of the Amazon best-selling book, Stop Sabotaging Your Confidence), speaker, media commentator, and the founder and Performance Transformation Expert® with multi award-winning company, Qt. She holds a PhD, a BEc and is passionate about helping professionals and individuals to improve their confidence, emotional and mental wellbeing and success. For more free resources please visit www.qttransformation.com
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