We all have had (or probably are still having) the stage of life that you keep thinking about all the things you want/need to do in order to become more successful. In your head, it sounds like an amazing plan, but actually getting off your lazy butt and working for it to make it happen is a totally different story.

Our brain has this remarkable power to create order in a total chaos. Most of us, keep over analyzing situations and try to find an explanation why certain things happen, what we would have done differently now and how that would have changed the present that we are currently living in.

On the other side, we have what we are going to do in order to make our future spotless and then we keep over analyzing possible future situations that might never happen.

In the business world, this is called analysis-paralysis: ”becoming so obsessed with understanding what happened in the past and why you fail to actually move forward. You simply become stuck in the analysis phase.”

Advertisement – Continue reading below

 

We all need that search for meaning and trying to understand why certain things happened. But clinging on to your past, or over analyzing your future only distracts you from taking the steps you need to take NOW to actually get where you want to be. There comes a point that you need to let go of your past and accept the things that happened and where you are right now in order to move on. If you don’t do that, you never will move forward and become stuck in the place you are right now. You will keep searching or over analyzing things that don’t exist, or are long gone, while the people around you move on.

So, whenever you get stuck in this analysis-paralysis, try to remind yourself the next following points:

#1 – There might be no meaning right now

Some people believe that everything in life has a purpose and a meaning. But certain things in life might not have a meaning (yet) at this very moment. Sometimes years and years later, when you look back at the situation, everything might become more clearer and you understand why certain things happened.

#2 – The obvious explanation could be the right one

That very first thought you had that seemed so simple and obvious? That might be the explanation you were looking for.

When we start overthinking it is mostly because we don’t believe things can be that obvious. We always try to find a more complicated and satisfying explanation for things, while it sometimes it is the most simple and obvious reason that first popped into our minds.

#3 – Maybe you are not supposed to understand it

Not everything in life is going to give you an explanation. This is something that can be difficult, but we simply need to accept it.

#4 – If it takes a long time to come to a conclusion doesn’t mean that the conclusion is more “right”

When we over analyze situations (especially situations with people we have a crush on or something work related that is very important to us) we often think that the longer we think the closer we come to a conclusion. Like said in #2, sometimes things are just simple. It might feel like you have come to the right conclusion because you have thought about it for so long. But over analyzing a situation for a long time and finally coming to a conclusion, doesn’t make that conclusion more right than the other conclusion that you most certainly must have had before.

Credit: Forbes & Careerealism