Overthinking things makes us hesitate, feel like we are wasting time and cause us to make bad decisions.
The true leaders and achievers are people who think, reflect and act without thinking too much, only what is necessary. When reflecting on something that we should do, we should not spend a lot of time, this would lead us to not be able to move forward and stay stagnant.
We must avoid being indecisive people. To do this, we have 10 mental tricks to avoid overthinking things . This will help you a lot to feel encouraged and confident enough to achieve what you set out to do.
10 tips to avoid overthinking something
1. Take that thought back when new ideas occur
After you’ve made your decision, it’s best to leave things there, at least until better ideas come up. Thinking after having decided will make us always doubt the decisions we make, which will cause us to waste time reflecting.
2. Overthinking is not synonymous with problem solving
Many people think that spending hours and hours reflecting on a problem will solve it. However, the best thing to do in these cases is to go directly, face it, and avoid thinking about it all the time. There is no point thinking about something too much if it is not going to be solved that way.
3. Assume a 90-10 to avoid overthinking
90% of what you create and decide must come from your own acceptance, being aware and free to think and act; while the other 10%, also important, must come from the acceptance and opinion of other people.
4. Assume that your thoughts are positive
As long as you do not harm others, you should know and understand that many thoughts are not bad .
Many excessive thinkers come to believe that after thinking a lot something bad will always come up, which is totally wrong. Assume something was done with good intentions to keep your mind free.
5. Thinking a lot will never prove you right
Remember that in many cases, you are not the one who is totally right: find out about things that you do not know perfectly and reflect.
Just thinking is not going to give you the answer to anything you do not know. Don’t waste your time thinking about something you don’t know to avoid empty thoughts.
6. Thinking too much about something will not eliminate uncertainty
Many times we find ourselves in doubt as to whether this will be good or bad. That means that we can be a little afraid of what we imagine.
It is totally normal for this to happen, especially when making easy or difficult decisions. Remember that you do not know everything and at some point, you the answer will come without much thought.
7. Avoid thinking about what will happen if? and replace it with a “let’s see what happens”
The phrase “What will happen if?” is a very good synonym for mistrust. Replace it with a “let’s see what happens.” It will give you greater security and avoid wasting too much time reflecting.
8. Avoid overthinking playing or having fun
The best strategy to not think too much is the game , this will keep us busy and avoid having to think a lot about bad things.
You can consider walking or going to the park, to the movies or any place where you have fun and feel free. This will stop you overthinking something and focus on your happiness.
9. Avoid thinking too much about the chances of something bad happening.
In most cases, we think a lot because we think that something we are going to do is going to have too negative consequences.
You must ask yourself , what is the chance of something really bad happening? You will see that at least, in most cases there is no danger whatsoever, which we recreate in our imagination.
10. Evaluate and think about the impact of your decisions
When faced with dangerous situations, it is important to see what impact doing something or not doing something, such as our life or health, will have.
In extreme cases we will always evaluate what can really happen; However, in other more everyday cases such as going out to drive, you should not waste too much time thinking that something bad will happen .
conclusion
Thinking too much creates very insecure people , just as thinking too little will make you too daring. A very good balance is knowing how much and how much to reflect on everything . This means that, whenever you are faced with a difficult decision, think and act in the best possible way.
Follow all these tips and you will be a better person, a more confident and cheerful one.
References
- Mautz S. 11 Mental Tricks to Stop Overthinking Everything. For Inc. [Revised January 2020]
