Say No to Overthinking and Achieve More
We live in a confused society right now, with every other coach or business guru telling us to say no more and respect our boundaries, whilst others are telling us to say yes more and embrace everything with aplomb.
Whatever your frame of mind there is one simple solution…
Don’t overthink the process!
If saying yes means spending hours, weeks, and endless time weighing up the pros and cons, then you may just be overthinking things.
If saying no means you spend way too much time thinking about the impact it has on someone or something else and spend too much time feeling guilty or anxious, you just might be overthinking it.
With 2021 just around the corner, instead of making new years resolutions of all the things you’re not going to do and making promises about all the things you are going to do and putting yourself under immense pressure to do everything differently…
How about just making one small change?
Say no to overthinking and achieve more in 2021.
My TOP TIPS AND TECHNIQUES FOR MAKING 2021 THE BEST YEAR YET.
It’s time to break free from overthinking.
I’m going to share my top tips and techniques to help you break free from spending too much time thinking about what you should and shouldn’t be doing and spend more time actually doing so you can make 2021 the best year yet.
Firstly, acknowledge you are doing it. Recognise when you are slipping into a habit of overthinking something. Create a signal to alert yourself - this may take time because it’s easy to forget when trying to change a habit and overthinking is no different from smoking, it’s something you might do without thinking about (literally), so write it on your fridge, on the notice board or wherever to remind you that you are intentionally aiming to break the habit.
Create an action - for instance, draw a circle and write the subject or decision to be made in the circle, or start a new page in your notebook, or go to a particular place in your home or office so you get a change of perspective. The action of doing something will allow your brain to recognise the repeated activity and will start to trigger new thought patterns as a result.
Be realistic about the time you are spending weighing up a decision. How could you condense that time and put in place a process to minimise the time you take to make each decision? Use a stop-clock, or timer to record time spent, or block out the time in your diary for specific decision making.
Lose the fear - stop thinking about what could go wrong and think about all the things that could go right or even better, extremely well.
Stop aiming for perfection - remember the 80/20 rule - the biggest trigger for procrastination is when aiming for perfection, so 80% of something may be enough to achieve your desired outcome and in most cases, 20% of what you do will result in 80% of your best results.
When you find yourself overthinking imagine a happy place and in order to get there faster, the decision you make right now has to be faster. Simple really- the longer you spend overthinking it, the longer it will take for you to fulfil your dreams.
Don’t put off the research - not every decision you make will be based on intuition or gut. Some decisions will need careful research and consideration so book out the time and treat this like any other appointment in your diary and value that commitment. If you need information before you make a decision, stop thinking about the decision and focus on the information you need to acquire first. Write that down and treat it like any other task on your to-do list.
Let things go - the biggest thing to let go for me is emotion. Although emotion is hugely important in ensuring we make the right decisions and be our true authentic self, don’t allow emotional feelings to cloud your judgment. Think about the practical needs and the desired outcome. What needs to happen in order for you to achieve the results you want to achieve? Think rationally and purposefully.
Stop waiting for the right time. If you are honest with yourself, is there really a right time or are you just putting something off for fear or some other reason? You cannot predict the future but you can change it, you’ve just got to start now.
Remember when you wanted what you currently have? You will feel that so many times in life. You can easily forget gratitude and perspective when you overthink everything. What small steps can you take to make great big changes? What small steps can you make now to make sure that in the future you will have what you currently want?
So as we come to the end of 2020, let’s make 2021 a year of great plans and action, with much achievement to follow.
GOODLUCK!
Faye Watts is a Strategic Business Coach and founder of London accountancy firm, FUSE Accountants. Sharing business development skills with business owners like you through planning, coaching and advisory. She is also the co-founder of Audrey, an online platform for women who know there’s more to life and sits on the board of various organisations, including as a trustee for the charity Neuroblastoma UK.
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