You Cannot Think Your Way To Clarity

I had bad OCD symptoms for at least 3 years before college.

I constantly battled with myself. I had fears that I didn’t want to have, yet I could not get rid of them. I thought about them over and over again, arguing back and forth with myself, about how unrealistic they were, how counterproductive they were and how self-destructive I was being by doing all of that.

I still have similar experiences from time to time but I’ve got a lot better at dealing with it. But through all of it, I learned something about myself. I’m a compulsive thinker. I think. That’s what I do. I cannot not think.

My first instinct after encountering problems is to think.

And sometimes that’s all I do.

But I realized that thinking did me no good when I kept everything inside my head. I talk myself into things, and talk myself out of them, all in 5 minutes. In college, I could write a 1000 words philosophy paper with argument A, argument B, counter argument A, counter argument B, and argument C, and why argument C does not work, in a few hours. It got me As in school but doesn’t always serve me in real life.

So gradually, I’ve become a doer. I think but I try not to think too much. If I think I want to do something more than 3 times, I’m doing it. It has brought tremendous benefits to my life.

Because the truth is, we cannot think our way to clarity. Period.

So do. Do do do do do. Today. Do something. Now.