Overthinking. Yes, something everyone does but doesn’t necessarily want to do. Why is it so hard to control what we think? How come when we tell ourselves to stop overthinking, we seem to think about it even more? Why did we start thinking about this situation in the first place? Was this situation a good one or a bad one? What is the importance of what we do? Why am I asking so many questions? Well I guess I will give you some answers now.
Whatever you might be overthinking in your head right now is draining any or all of your productivity energy. Everything that is occuring in front of you right now is becoming half complete since you will never pay attention to the moment in front of you. This is because your brain can’t stop thinking of “what if’s”, second guessing, and continually replaying the situation. How are we able to skip this distracting step, think of an effective solution, and arrive at a promising conclusion?
Remember how I asked a tone of questions in the beginning? A good strategy to develop and use is to make the information you just encountered in the form of questions. It makes the information a little more simple and it is easier to grasp what is going on. Here is a couple examples.
Complex Situation → Effective Question:
- Evaluate thoughts. “This a good thought?” → “Predator or Prey thoughts?”
- Decision Making. “What Should I do?” → “Benefit my Priority List?”
- Difficult Situation. “How do I cope?” → “How do I look on the bright side?”
Written by:
Sarah Grippi
Basketball Mindset