Overthinking
4 Actionable Steps To Stop Overthinking and Take Action To Achieve Your Goals
Overanalyzing every decision can paralyze your progress.
Overanalyzing every decision can paralyze your progress.
We often spend days, months, or sometimes even years trying to start doing something.
We only express regret after a significant amount of time has elapsed without any action. Plans can be as big as climbing the highest peak of a mountain, but they are only useful when you step out of your home to start that journey.
Thinking and planning are beneficial for understanding the journey, but without execution, they simply amount to overthinking.
Instead of talking about it, if you had done it, you could have been ahead of where you are today.
If you want to start that business, lose weight, build muscle, run a marathon, clear that exam, or get your dream job, you need to act. You become comfortable talking about your goals without doing anything about them. As talking is always easier than execution.
You don’t lack resources, time, or planning; you lack the courage to take action.
Step 1: Write down everything you want to achieve on a piece of paper.
Using pen and paper is still underrated, especially in this century.
Your mind’s purpose is to generate new ideas, not store existing ones. When you procrastinate, your mind is preoccupied with plans but never ready to act. You can only take action if you write down your objectives and intentions, allowing your mind the space to carry them out.
Take a piece of paper and write down what you want to achieve in bold letters on top.
For example, I want to lose X kg until Y date.
Step 2: Break your goals into parts to make them easier.
Your goal will not come into action until you break it down into actionable steps.
You cannot think about reaching the peak of a mountain without having a clear vision of the steps you need to take to get there. By breaking a bigger goal down, you convert it into an achievable plan.
The steps are not unachievable when we see them separately, and together they will help you achieve your desired goal.
For example, to lose X kg until the Y date
I will go to the gym four times a week.
I will eat with a calorie deficit.
I will drink 3 litres of water.
I will walk 8,000 steps daily.
I will be asleep by 10 p.m.
Step 3: Create a daily habit tracker to track your progress.
What gets measured gets improved.
Once you have determined your goal and broken it down into smaller steps, you’ll now need to create a system to keep track of it. Big goals take time to complete, so it might be monotonous and frustrating to keep going. But tracking can give you a daily feeling of victory from even small steps.
You are more likely to stay on the right path if you track your actions every day.
Create a simple table on a piece of paper. in notion or excel (whatever suits you). Create three columns: one for today’s date, another for the task name you need to complete, and a final column to indicate whether the task is complete or not.
For example, to lose X kg until the Y date
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Step 4: Analyse your progress and make changes.
Lastly, we need to analyze our habits by looking at our habit tracker every week.
We do this to determine our strengths and weaknesses at the end of each week. If you don’t set aside time each week to sit down and assess your performance. It’ll be like wandering through a dark tunnel without knowing if you’re moving in the correct direction or not.
Self-analysis at a frequent interval is important to keep us in the right direction.
For example, you may have noticed after looking at our habit tracker that you are missing workouts. Ask yourself: Why are you missing? This is because you are not sleeping on time. Why are you not sleeping on time? You are watching a movie late at night. What should you do next? Stop using your phone or TV after 9 p.m.
This is how you find solutions: by analysing your deeply rooted problems and getting better at them.
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