Jun 12 2008
Whirries
“I think… you worry too much.”
A friend said this to me the other day. It’s not a statement I can argue with. It’s not even the first time I’ve heard it. The thing I can’t quite figure out though is… how do I stop?
For the sake of argument, let’s expand this statement with the other thing I hear a lot. “You’re overanalyzing.” Combine those two and what it seems to amount to is that I spend a lot of time thinking through all the possibilities and sides of things, occasionally to the point that I spend all my time thinking and none of my time doing.
Where is the line between analyzing and overanalyzing? Is it, as I said above, the point at which the thinking outweighs or even prevents the doing? Or is it some point before then? What is the right amount of analyzing to do on a topic before acting on the analyzation? I’d assume that varies case to case. For example, it seems smart to do a good bit of analyzing before life-altering decisions, like buying a house or quitting your job. But it would be overanalyzing to spend the same amount of effort on analyzing, say, whether to have green beans or broccoli with dinner.
What does the decision making process look like to someone who doesn’t overanalyze? Do they weigh pros and cons just to the point that one option has a slight lead over the others, and go with that? Do they analyze until gut instinct starts to pull them in one direction or the other, and then act on that? What are the alternatives to overanalyzing and worrying too much? They must be out there, since the comments I get from others - and frankly, from myself - indicate that I’m doing it wrong.
Where are the non-worriers, the just-right-analyzers, the unstressed? Will they comment and help me find worry-free zentopia? Stop me, before I overanalyze again.
And yes, I do appreciate the irony of this blog post analyzing my overanalyzing. Hush, you.
