Making decisions is not easy for a lot of people, only because of something we know as “over-thinking.” Over-thinking is not a curse. In fact, over-thinking is nothing more than a pause that we place between the decision and the action. The greatest momentum comes from making a decision quickly and changing your mind slowly.
Many times in that space that immediately follows the decision, our analytical mind goes into full-action mode: We feel like we need to research the decision in a web search. We ask our friends and neighbors what they think about the decision and then we ask all of social media what their thoughts are on the decision. We re-visit the decision and often change our minds so many times that we often forget what the original decision really was.
Here’s a quick fix to narrow the pause that causes “over-thinking”: Spell your name slowly and clearly. Once you make a decision, any decision, begin to spell your name. Before you finish spelling your name, commit to one action. You don't need to fully complete the action, you only need to take one small step towards it. Research shows that once we take an initial action, we are exponentially more likely to complete the action.
For example, If you decide to talk to a person on the other side of the room (because of business, because they're cute, etc.), your brain will automatically begin to go through all of the possible "what if's" that surround that conversation: What if I trip? What if they laugh at me? What if I stutter? What if they say "no"? We will quickly talk ourselves out of talking to that person.
Once we decide to talk to that person, begin spelling your name: K......E.......L........L...... before I get to Y, I need to take the first step towards that person. If I can do that, the odds are good that the conversation will actually happen.
Live with love, live with passion.
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