How to escape Overthinking and Perfectionism - The Main Causes of Analysis Paralysis:

Are you a perfectionist with a tendency to overthink? Be aware! This can be a deadly combination that almost always leads to analysis paralysis. The person suffering from overthinking is flooded by multiple scenarios and possibilities that they feel the need to explore which won’t allow them to undertake concrete actions.

Exploring every possible outcome can hinder our thinking and keep us from discovering our priorities. We will thus, give equal importance to unequal opportunities, while simultaneously thinking about the multitude of different possibilities and outcomes.

That type of reasoning can quickly form a downward spiral causing us to be flooded by unwanted thoughts which will inevitably lead to analysis paralysis.

I have seen this scenario unfold and repeat itself a thousand times over in my practice. For this reason, I have come up with ways and steps we can start to undertake today, to keep our perfectionism at bay, our overthinking under control, and thus eliminate our analysis paralysis.

Analysis Paralysis, a closer look:

Analysis Paralysis is our inability to act upon our choices, thoughts, or decisions. In this case, we are stuck in our heads at the stage of thinking or moreover at the stage of overthinking 1 :

“Analysis paralysis is the state of over-thinking about a decision to the point that a choice never gets made”.

Along with thinking about the various “what if”, we might also be overcomplicating simple decisions because we might feel overwhelmed by the possible outcomes, ultimately fearing not picking the best one.

Perfectionism and overthinking - the roots of Analysis Paralysis:

The causes of perfectionism are numerous and overthinking is one of its outcomes. A perfectionist is always set on finding the best solution to all the problems that present themselves regardless of their meaning, their importance, or even their effect on their lives.

And because life is messy and imperfect, this black-and-white behavior can lead to overthinking, creating a damaging loop, that if left unchecked, will start to magnify. With time, it can also lead to analysis paralysis 2 : “Analysis paralysis (or paralysis by analysis) describes an individual or group process when overanalyzing or overthinking a situation can cause forward motion or decision-making to become paralyzed; meaning that no solution or course of action is decided upon within a natural time frame”.

Steps to Overcome Analysis Paralysis:

1. Determine your goals: It is important to identify your goals in life and learn about who you aspire to become. By envisioning your future self, and knowing what goals are important to you, you will be able to have a clear idea about what your future will look like, giving yourself a guideline.

2. Work on your priorities and break big tasks down: This guideline will help you determine your priorities and identify which tasks will contribute to making your vision come to life and which ones can be delayed for when the time is right. It can also allow you to break big tasks into smaller, and more manageable ones.

3. Ask yourself: Are the decisions you are facing, big or small? It is important to understand which decisions are more important than the rest and give each one of them the appropriate amount of time. Not every decision needs to be carefully thought of for hours on end, and some choices can be made way quicker than others, especially in situations where you have control over the outcome.

4. Allow yourself to let go and start: Realizing that we have little control over various situations should bring us some comfort and stop us from blaming ourselves when problems arise. When you first start to work on a task, you will start having clear ideas on how to proceed and keep the flow going. Allowing yourself to just start and working on letting go are skill sets that should be consciously mastered because they will eventually help you take concrete actions towards achieving your goals.

5. Focus on one task or decision: Allowing yourself to focus on one task or making one decision at a time, is a great relief that will help you become more productive and feel more accomplished. You can use various time-management and productivity techniques such as timeboxing 3 .

6. Become comfortable with making mistakes: Making mistakes is only human after all! Not allowing ourselves to make mistakes and learn from them is not only paralyzing, it is also restrictive to our personal growth. Realizing that everybody makes mistakes and that actually mistakes are an undeniable part of our human nature, is freeing and an incredible step in the right direction.

7. Practice, Practice, Practice: Remember, how powerful it is the practice! The skillset we need to work on in order to overcome perfectionism, takes time, patience, and effort. That is why it is important to practice them as soon as our analysis paralysis tendency starts to kick in, and with time, we will even be able to catch ourselves at theoverthinking or perfectionism stage.

8. Reward yourself for all your efforts: while working on improving an aspect of your personality that is causing you distress, it is important to always reward yourself in big and/or small ways to keep yourself motivated.

Remember,

Working on improving ourselves takes time and effort. Therefore, we must show compassion to ourselves first, and learn how to listen to our bodies, our gut reactions, and trust our instincts 4 :

“In every aspect of life, whether it is a career, relationships, or even investment decisions, there is a tendency to overthink. Every single choice has its positives and negatives. It can be freeing to think about how there is no such thing as a perfect solution. Instead of striving for perfection, we can focus on activities that will bring the best results.’

1 https://personalexcellence.co/blog/analysis-paralysis/

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis

3 https://www.spica.com/blog/timeboxing

4 https://thehkhub.com/perfectionism-is-paralysis-by-overanalysis/