I saw this 7-second video in my Facebook feed. It was captioned “what overthinking looks like”. If you click on the link above, it shows a blindfolded man being tasked to touch something inside the box without him knowing what it is. It’s funny because you could see him panicking and we see the cute little stuffed animal inside the box.
He couldn’t see it though. He doesn’t know what it is. He just assumes it’s something scary off the bat.
It made me wonder, why are we inclined to always think of the worst when we do not even see “it” yet, when we don’t even know what could be yet.
The caption says it all. I think it is very apt. This is what overthinking looks like. I am one. I used to be this guy. Sometimes I still I am. The difference is I am now able to spot it when it starts to take over my mind.
How much do you overthink? What are the things that you weren’t able to do because you were overthinking about it? What does your worst-case scenario usually look like? Do you notice it when you overthink? Where would you be now if you didn’t overthink that much? Who would you be?
To overthinkers, it’s hard to break this habit but you’ve got to try. Watch out for the signs and halt it as early as you can. For me, I found that my brain rambling about something I can never know for sure is one of the first few signs.
Write down these thoughts. Breathe. Read it again. Write the positive version of it. Read it - out loud.
And remember this - there is nothing in this world that we can be sure of. The only way to find out is to actually live through it, whatever it may be. So why spend all this time and energy overthinking about it?
PS - Planning and overthinking are two different things. Don’t confuse the two.
