If you haven’t experienced Analysis Paralysis you are my hero. I’ll have what you’re having.
For the rest of us, it’s just a matter of when, where, and how bad?
Amirite?
It’s such a terrible feeling to not be able to make a decision. But it sucks more to be so overwhelmed and anxious about the whole thing.
I remember, when I worked in a pet store, we had like 75 different fish foods. Customers would stand and stare at the wall of cans not knowing what to choose. Too overwhelmed to make a decision. Too scared to mess it up or pay too much. Many times I’d just grab one and say, ‘this is what you need’. Just to save them.
But fish food is benign. What if the analysis paralysis comes when trying to decide whether you should take a new job? Or get married? Or have kids!?
Life is full of major decisions and they all bring major stress. Not being able to, or knowing how to decide takes it up to a new level of suck.
A few things that help me are to try and rank the overall importance of the decision and the worst outcomes in the context of all of life’s experiences. Sometimes making yourself aware of the potential consequences, or ‘worst case scenario’ will calm you down if you realize it’s no big deal.
Of course, some things are huge deals and this contextualization doesn’t work.
In these cases I think it helps to realize that life is full of decisions, and just making one is almost always fine. Especially if you are doing your due diligence and thinking about various consequences. Chances are, whichever choice you make is going to work out. Plus you are sparing yourself the stress of the analysis! The key here is to realize you are making a decision to reduce your stress, and to remember that you can’t go back and wish you had made a different decision.
In truth, our lives can go infinite ways based on decisions we make, if we mean well, have good intentions, and pay attention the majority of these pathways are going to work out fine. It’s not about the decision, really, it’s about the path.
You can find the Episode on your favorite podcast app and the Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom YouTube channel or direct here:
Podcast audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/530563/4399163-kew-episode-11-analysis-paralysis.mp3?blob_id=17177747&download=true
Youtube video:https://www.youtube.com/embed/gYcBOME-i7c?feature=oembed
Original post with here:
Good day! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I really enjoy reading through your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics? Appreciate it!
Thank you and good day to you! I appreciate you reading and commenting. Unfortunately, I don’t know of other similar blogs.