So you now have just three months left to achieve your 2019 goals! Are you on track? Or still overthinking your plan for what needs to be done?
One of the most dangerous things that you can do when you’re planning and actually going down your path to success is overthinking things. Overthinking is a very common problem for many people. And it’s also one of the most destructive.
It can lead to you falling off your path, doing things poorly, and even giving up on your goals and dreams as a whole. There’s nothing worse than thinking about something so much that you actually end up doing it worse than you would’ve before.
When does overthinking occur?
Overthinking occurs when you worry so much about something that you spend too much time thinking about it. You end up getting it stuck in your own head so there’s room for nothing else, eventually leading you to make poor decisions and fail.
If you are like this, you will get so caught up in all the semantics and little things that you tend to forget the bigger picture. You start to stress out about things that barely even matter.
Chances are, if you just make a plan that is flexible and adjustable, things will work themselves out.
You may be actively making things harder on yourself by being so worrisome that you stress yourself out over too many little things.
A part of this whole concept of overthinking comes from a desire to be perfect and not ever make mistakes. However this isn’t a realistic goal to have.
Everyone is going to make mistakes along the way.
It’s only natural. Instead of wasting your time and energy worrying about what might happen and freaking out about the possibility of something going wrong, accept that things might go wrong, and that’s alright.
Mistakes are perfect opportunities for you to learn, develop, and grow.
Everyone learns through their mistakes, whether they’re big or small. At the end of the day, you’re still going to be OK, and you’ll have a great deal of newfound knowledge that can help you improve in the future.
What GEAR?
The concept I teach my coaching clients is to ask yourself ‘What GEAR do you need to operate in for this task?’ GEAR Stands for Good Enough / Accuracy Required.
Ask yourself if this is a task for Accuracy Required (brain surgery would be an example) or if Good Enough will suffice (almost everything else would be an example)?
I’m not saying don’t do a good job. In fact I do want you to get better and better by doing a Good Enough job as often as you can. But don’t overthink it. Do as good a job as you can, learn from it and do even better next time. But don’t chase pointless perfection unless you really are working on an Accuracy Required critical task.
Have you ever been stuck in an overthinking loop? Add a comment below and tell me what you think…
PS. Want some guidance for planning the last 90 days of 2019? http://kmginfo.com/go/90day-action-plan
