We all have options. It’s not until we have too many options where we end up choosing the option that’s the easiest, doing nothing. That’s generally my choice unless I have a gentle nudge from outside forces or if I find myself with a deadline. The reason being, my ego. I generally fear I’m making a bad decision.
What is Analysis Paralysis?
In my own words, it’s when I have too many options to choose from and I can’t make up my mind and end up contemplating which leads to nothing getting done. According to Wikipedia, “Analysis Paralysis describes an individual or group process when overanalyzing or overthinking a situation can cause forward motion or decision-making to become “paralyzed”, meaning that no solution or course of action is decided upon.”
This happens way too often to me. In fact, just before I sat down to type this out I couldn’t decide which music to play in the background because there is what, close to unlimited-thousand choices?! So I sat there, in silence, scrolling and scrolling and just said, F-it, I’ll start typing or else I’ll go another day being a wantrepreneur.
A few other worthy mentions of Analysis Paralysis are choosing which college to attend, what career to pursue, and what topic can I write about?
So naturally, I figured I’d start with this topic near and dear to my heart.
How did I overcome Paralysis to write this?
In this case, a little nudge… I have a friend who runs ThriveOnLife.com and we were talking about business ideas and one thing led to another where we broke down this blog using a mindmap (you can check it out, here). Then in his subtle words of wisdom, “Just start”. And then I end up telling him, look buddy, it’s not that easy! I’ve got a full list of topics to choose from!
In a way, his words worked. He gave me a small challenge to write one blog post. I had to forget about writing the best blog post, forget about trying to impress others, and remember why I want to write. He issued the challenge to have at least one post written so we could follow-up after our conversation about building a business and to hold me accountable.
Let’s unpack this challenge a bit more. My friend and I talked about all of the options I have and we reduced the number of options down to make it manageable. We set a limit of choosing just ONE post so it was achievable and easy. This led to taking a small step in the right direction versus not starting at all. Toward the end of it, I have to remember, the blog post won’t be perfect but my writing will never get better if I don’t try.
Moral of the Story
If I’m contemplating all of my available options, it’s easier for me to break them down and make a choice to the best of my ability. My hindsight is always 20/20, so the more choices I can make, the better and faster I become. In the case of this blog topic, I chose analysis paralysis because it is a real issue that I face a lot and it falls under a theme that’s interesting to me, Discipline and Procrastination. With this being my first post though, it definitely won’t be perfect as stated before, but I started and I know deep down that I want to start a blog. I have to “just start”.
Key Takeaways:
- Create a Goal and prioritize how to achieve it
- Limit the number of options, pick a few and go with one of them after comparing
- Take a small step to get going and keep the momentum
- It may not be perfect, but you can’t improve without trying
- Talk to a friend! It’s helpful to talk it out