10 reasons you’re an overthinker
73 percent of 25-35 year-olds and 52 percent of 45-55 year-olds overthink. (Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Univ. of Michigan)
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Yesterday the garage installed studded snow tires on my truck. I’m ready to battle the steep wintery hill that leads to our home in central Pennsylvania.
In winters past, the hill handed me a few crushing defeats. I perilously slid down its dangerously slick surface. But not this year! This year I’ve got traction.
Get traction by thinking less
Every day at 4:50 my coach calls me with a series of questions. Here’s one, “Did you spend time thinking about the future?” A few weeks ago I thought that was an insightful question. After all, when our memories exceed our dreams the end is near. Today, I think it’s dumb.
Focus on thinking, you’ll get more thinking.
Focus on doing, you’ll get results.
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Ten reasons you overthink
#1. Thinking is safe.
#2. Thinking feels like doing even though it isn’t.
#3. Thinking makes you look smart.
#4. Thinking helps you prepare solutions for imaginary problems.
#5. You fear not having an answer.
#6. You don’t trust yourself enough to find solutions as you go.
#7. Your organization is filled with people protecting their turf.
#8. Fear of failure rather than passion drives you.
#9. You speculate about the motives of others.
#10. You don’t know where you’re going.
Traction action
I’m asking my coach to ask a new question. “What did you do today that builds your preferred future?” That’s a “studded snow tire” question.
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Why do people spend too much time thinking?
Thinking is necessary, how much is enough?
How do you get results?
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Added resource from the BBC: “It’s good to think but not too much, scientists say”
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In praise of self-doubt: http://leadershipfreak.blog/2010/11/01/in-praise-of-self-doubt/
That is a great bit of advice. I certainly fall into the trap of overthinking. Now I am going to get up and do something constructive. Cheers.
Cheers to you!
Hello Dan,
Useful subject:).
First of all congratulation for your Blog Performance – and wait for you to share your receiving prize experience with us. (you have my vote also).
Thinking is good only when you don’t get stock in only thinking. I am always with the opinion that acting change the way we think in good-if we know to extract wisest knowledge from every experience we go trough.
Thinking process with out communication and participation of other people thinking and points of view is inefficient.
Results come only when we focus more on doing (having a knowledge coming from sharing points of view and thinking)- putting thinking in to practice!
All the best,
Simona,
Thank you for your encouraging comments and your vote.
Your statement, “acting changes the way we think” is so rich. It’s true that the way we think impacts what we do. However, in my experience, your statement is also true. Nicely said.
Thanks for adding value today.
Best,
Dan
Great list, Dan.
#11 You fear looking bad.
(Looking bad isn’t failure. You may even succeed. But the fragile mental-churning mind doesn’t want to tolerate it – and puts too much personal stock into it.)
All the best,
Tracy
Good one Tracy.
I know how distracting it can be to be thinking on what I look like. It isn’t fun and it’s distracting.
Thanks for adding to the list.
Best regards,
Dan
Great post Dan and I also would like to congratulate you on your blog. (of course I voted for it) thinking is important and one should not rush into things without some degree of contemplation but certainly we should not dwell on issues to the point of paralysis. I love your comment regarding memories outstretching your view of the future. That one is another keeper in my book. I read a blog earlier wherein Yoda of all people was quoted and fits nicely with today’s theme “Do or not do, there is no try.” Action will always have more impact regardless of outcome vs. Just thinking. We will always learn something from our actions whether failure or success with not a whole lot to be gleaned from prolonged and drawn out ruminations. Have a great day regards Al
Dr. Diaz,
Thank you for your encouraging words and for voting for me.
Here’s what I’m personally taking from your post.
#1. Gotta remember analysis paralysis
#2. Actions have impact. If I want to have impact I MUST act.
Thanks for consistently sharing your insights.
Best to you,
Dan
Dr. Diaz is a featured contributor on Leadership Freak. Read his bio at http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/al-diaz
Interesting post, Dan. It seems that most leaders I’ve known fall into one of two camps: Thinking too long before doing or not thinking enough before doing. I recall hearing a leader, General Colin Powell I believe, state that you have to make decisions when you have 70-80% of the information. You’ll act too late if you wait for all the facts. I’ve found this to be great advice. I think that there is a balance and this post is a great help for the thinkers.
Chris
Chris,
Love the counsel from General Powell that you pass along. The old 80/20 rule just keeps on ticking.
BTW, I agree that most leaders tend to fall at one end of the extreme or the other.
Organizational culture has impact also. Not long ago, I chatted with a leader in a large organization. He felt that most leaders in his organization were overthinkers. He said, it’s refreshing to find someone willing to make a decision.
Thanks for adding value to the conversation.
Best regard to you Chris,
Dan
Dan,
Great post! Thinking enough to define action steps is good. I completely agree with your items #4 and 5. I have too often witnessed (and personally performed) too much research and analysis on imaginary problems because a boss was afraid of not having an answer for every possible question. While I too admit I try to prepare for the inevitable questions when leading a new charge, I am usually more successful when I limit the second-guessing. Thanks for reinforcing the power of positive conviction.
Thinking then acting through others is effective I feel.
1. Your ‘thinking’ needs to be about how to help others see your vision as leader.
2. Your ‘doing’ needs to be testing your communication – did they ‘get it’ or not? If not, what do I need to re-think and then restate?
If your ‘doing’ as a leader is doing the mopping, bookkeeping, payroll, marketing, sales and etc. then you’re driving up the hill to the wrong house – it’s even worse than thinking and ‘doing’ nothing.
WHen you’re ‘thinking’ too much, at least you’re not in the way of your subordinates.
And Good morning to you to Dan! As a driver personality, I am happy happy happy to read this post. We like results. Thinking is good to get there yet it is not a goal in itself.
Last night, I watched ABC Nightly News with Diane Sawyer reporting from China. She is doing a special on how China is achieving so much so fast. The repeated theme — China sets a goal and says “how do we make this happen now?” Then does it.
One $$$ entrepreneur there, who has spent time here, said in America you spend 2-3 years discussing building a new road. In China, we say let’s do it!
America was this was this way in the early 1900’s. We can do it again. Let’s get to it!
Love your post — as you can tell.
Have an inspired and productive day everybody,
Kate
And DAN, a big congratulations on your nomination for best leadership blog.
Dan,
I think you have hit the nail on the right spot for me. I have experienced this and still do that sometimes.
What do you suggest should be the immediate thing to do if we see ourselves getting into this mode?
Excellent point! So easy toget stuck in the trap of thinking and not doing, we do have to think about our future as far as planning, but then to put feet to it is something different altogether!
I didn’t even have to read this post past the title to be able to relate — if I had a dime for every time my response to a dilemma has been “let me think about that,” I’d be wealthy. For me, there is clarity in thinking, even if there are several different options I am considering — it is when others’ opinions and feedback become part of the mix that I find it challenging to convert thoughts into results.
“How much is enough?” probably differs depending on a lot of factors – how “big” is the dilemma/problem to be solved? What are the ramifications? There is more import to choosing which medical treatment to use for your child’s serious condition than there is in what color to paint a room (that one alone can trip me up!).
How do you get to results? In preparing this response, I was fishing around for a good quote and found this one from Freud: “Thought is action in rehearsal.” When I think of elite athletes who rehearse and rehearse mentally, then achieve great results, I can see that. For the types of “routine” challenges the rest of us face moving from thought to action, I suppose part of the equation is putting the “worst case scenario” in perspective — in many situations the worst price to pay is a bit of embarrassment but the reward is a lesson learned.
Love the analogy.
Here’s a saying I love to keep in mind:
“Action without thought leads you astray; thought without action leads you nowhere”
I’m a firm believer that you really need both. I try to follow the guideline that if action is keeping me from thinking, I need to slow down; if thinking is keeping me from action, I need to get up and start doing!
Snow in Pennsylvania, Oh the memories of the blizzard of ’93. Studded snow tires were useless, but I digress.
Dan, you make interesting points. If only people would actually think and be accountable for the action that comes from their thinking…just imagine what it would be like.
Why do people spend too much time thinking?
It is a defense mechanism to avoid taking action. With the advent of today’s social networking, people think they are thinking, but are merely exchanging gibberish. Do we all really need to know when you are going to the rest room?
Thinking is necessary, how much is enough?
It depends on the thing you are thinking about. Thinking to be thinking is worthless.
How do you get results?
Fail and fail often and PAY ATTENTION!
If we do not experiment with what we are thinking about, we’ll never know if what we thought was what we were thinking.
Be Safe…Jim
#12 It is more fun and there is less outcome accountability.
#7, turf protection can be very subtle and also very deep, logically sequenced to have #8, fear of failure follow.
On our new leader’s whiteboard in big letters…’what are you doing about it?’
Nuff talk, nuff meetings, nuff smoke, what is the action that follows all of the talk and all of the meetings.
How much is enough….make a plan, with b/u and one alternative should be more than enough…it usually is for IT redundancy standards.
Within the plan, what are the most likely boulders that will roll in the way…can vote on that pretty quickly. Then what is the plan to break/move the boulders. Might have to repave the hole where the boulder landed, then get going!
If possible, results are in the plan, then you have motivation to get started and then it really is that first step, once you overcome the initial inertia, you are in gear, then it is a choice of which gear. Heck, celebrate the first step/first marker and a few after that to keep moving.
Starting an exercise regime is a great example…and truly is the first step.
Wanted to use the ‘where the rubber meets the road’ quote, but you went with studded tires, so will go with…’I had to stop driving my car for a while, my tires got dizzy.’—Stephen Wright
Thanks for another great post, Dan (that’s why I voted your blog #1 !!).
Much “action” is an iterative process – linear or multi-linear (critical path) events that require precedents, time, reactions, processing, decisions and further action. The most repetitive “action” or “doing” is really a checklist activity, and does not result in innovation, creativity or insights.
Such activities have a high likelihood of success because the risks are low. Without the ability to think/react/course-correct along the way, the overthought planning and preparation can preclude having capability to respond to opportunities, challenges and constructive input along the way.
Or, at least that is what I thought as I planned to write this comment, but your mileage may vary!
Dan, your blog is helpful not only as a leader in the workplace but as a leader in my home. Both my wife and my step-daughter have benefited from your willingness to share your wisdom with me.
The least I could do as a show of thanks would be to look at every other blog’s most recent post, weigh them up and choose the blog I believe to be most beneficial. I chose yours, Dan, because it removes the square.
I wrote an article several weeks ago about how much planning is too much planning, that really came to my mind when I read this post. Sometimes it’s much more comfortable to think rather than to act, as “thinking” really doesn’t have any possible negative outcome, opposed to acting, bringing the possibility of failure in front of our eyes. If you’re not prepared for failure, you will always prefer thinking.
Excellent point. You may get positive results from action without thinking, but you’ll never see them from thinking without acting. Of course, a bit of thinking before and after action is best, but overthinking is just paralysis.
My business cards say “Your actions lead to your outcomes. Take action!”
Thank you for giving us great food for thought regarding thinking vs. action. Related to #6, not trusting ourselves: Another possible cause for overthinking is trying to sort out the “noise” of advice and opinions we hear from well-meaning colleagues and the media. In our desire to be sure we will take the right actions, we can end up being trapped into inaction by trying to determine “who” or “what” is right — “Doing {this} seems like the right thing, but so-and-so says that…” One of your commenters noted that you will act too late if you wait to get all of the facts — an excellent point. At some point, you must believe in yourself enough to shut out the noise and ACT, and then be responsible for the outcome of that action.
I recently looked at an old to-do list that had a number of items not completed. In reflecting on it, I felt a certain irony about the list, because it was so easy to compile it — and so hard to do many of the things on it.
Dan,
Great post. I too appreciate the advice from General Powell as one commentor reminded us.
Sometimes I think leaders, myself included, overthink to avoid action. Maybe we think the situation will just resolve itself, or the true answer is just too hard.
I learned early in my Marine Corps training that you have to recognize that critical moment of timing where to delay could cost lives (or deals) and then decide and correct course as you move along the decided path.
Keep up the great work and congratulations on your success.
Mike