Written by: Sharon Lee, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I have good news for you if you want to stop overthinking. Your mind holds the answers to your future, and it’s so powerful that it creates your reality whether you believe this fact or not and this goes for your business, your career, your body, your finances, and your business!
I’ve worked with thousands of entrepreneurs all over the world for almost 30 years and can tell you that they all struggled with one thing… their minds.
Their mind was responsible for failing at growing their business and having the desired revenue and sabotaging themselves every step of the way with their personal life until they figured out what I’m about to share with you.
What we know to be true is; the consistent thought pattern we have is responsible for the experiences we’ll have in our lives and our businesses. This is a truism that the most successful people on this planet hold to heart in a BIG way!
These successful people or the top 10% of the world’s most successful and wealthy people know a little something about how to become rich and successful from a strategy standpoint, but they also harness the powers of their minds to achieve far more success than most other people.
They know how dangerous overthinking can be and if you struggle with this mindset issue, then I’ve got actual steps to help you stop being an overthinker.
A study from the University of Michigan found that an astounding 73% of our youth on this planet identify as overthinkers and easily 52% of middle-aged people say they let overthinking get the best of them too.
I’m sure this is comforting to know that you’re not alone but realize this too, as a child, you didn’t overthink. Realizing this shows us that overthinking is just a habit, a habit that you can shift out of.
It should come as no surprise to learn that overthinking and those that identify as an overthinker, learned this behavior because of specific events that happened in their life or from perceived negative comments of their friends and family.
You can see that overthinking is a negative pattern that developed likely over many years, but this is good news. Why? Because if you can learn a behavior, good or bad, then you can unlearn it too.
“Why Can’t I Stop Overthinking Everything?”
I get this question from my clients quite often and it might be something that you struggle with too. You’re likely ruminating and overthinking because you can’t let something go. Often, it’s related to specific insecurity, self-doubt, or a previous failure where you’re living in fear of making the same mistake.
Most often, we live our lives and run our businesses in fear. When this is our reality, it’s no surprise that we’re not as successful as we dream we’d be, but don’t worry because this is absolutely “fixable”.
Your mind is running the show of your life. To be more specific, it’s the little you or the young you that is in charge and making the decisions. If we’re meant to live free and create a future that’s abundant, we need to eliminate the habit of overthinking.
The faster you get through the process, the faster you’ll begin seeing more positive results in your life overall.
How Overthinking Is Sabotaging Your Business.
Those times when you write out the perfect marketing plan that includes getting on video every day on some social media platform but you begin thinking;
“What if no one likes it?”
“What if I get some hate for my opinions?”
“What makes me think I can do this, someone else better than me is speaking the same message.”
Maybe you think that you’re going to connect with a big influencer to do a joint venture to grow your audience but you chicken out because you’re thinking;
“Who do I even think I am, she’s so much more advanced than I am. She’ll never agree to work together.”
Maybe you think you’re going to write a book to build your email list but you think;
“What if no one likes my book and leaves me a one-star review? I’ll have done all that work for nothing so I might as well not even try.”
Entrepreneurship with the technical aspects, marketing strategies, and concerns of being visible online are hard enough without having to deal with your mind with all of the sabotaging thoughts you ruminate about over and over again.
How To Stop Overthinking, NOW!
These are the actual steps on how to stop overthinking so you can get out of self-doubt, into action, and confidence so you can build the life and business you want.
Step One: Be in awareness. – This is easy to do because you can catch yourself because of how you feel. Think back to the last time you ruminated over a thought. How did it make you feel? Now that you are in touch with the feeling, you’ll be ready the next time it happens.
It’s likely that you’re overthinking about specific topics.
Exercise: Sit down in a quiet place, and make a list of the thoughts you tend to ruminate about.
Example: “I don’t feel like doing a video. It’s such a big production and I just don’t have time for it.”
Step Two: Look at the thought. – Having clarity is incredibly powerful and when you identify the thought, you suddenly gain more control.
You might be saying right now…
“So what, now what do I do?”
That’s a great question. Being in awareness that you’re overthinking again is great but looking at the thought and analyzing it is important but you’ll see why in the next steps.
Step Three: Realize the thought is neutral. – Thoughts in and of themselves have no meaning, they simply have no emotion or feeling to them. They seem so real, don’t they? That’s because, within a fraction of a second, you’re breathing life into the thought by giving them meaning.
These are just stories or limiting beliefs from our past (even a month ago) and they have absolutely no meaning to them.
WE, are giving them meaning.
Here’s an example of a thought my clients come to me with quite often.
“I can’t make consistent income.”
If this isn’t something you believe then you see them as just words on the screen as you’re reading this article. However, if this is a belief of yours, then you’re likely to feel something in your body and say;
“Yeah, I can’t make consistent income either!”
The difference is, one person reading the statement identifies with it because of their own personal experiences of struggling with making money whereas the other person reading the exact same statement can’t relate at all because they are succeeding at making a steady income.
The sentence comes to life and suddenly has meaning but it doesn’t have to if you know what to do.
Step Four: Flipping the belief by letting go. ‒ In order to do this, we need to be willing to do the inner mindset work to let it go. You’ve identified in step one how the thought makes you feel, now ask yourself how you’d rather feel.
Thought: “I can’t make consistent income.”
Feeling: “I feel insecure, inferior, like I’m doing something wrong, I’m missing something, and I feel doubt.”
Now how would you rather feel?
New Feeling: “I’d rather feel in control and confident”.
What thoughts do you need to have to feel in control and confident?
First, realize that you’ve made money in your business in the past so nothing is really wrong at all.
Now visualize with me for a moment. Imagine the jelly or the salad dressing that you have in your fridge. You know where it is; you’re certain of it. Feel that certainty in your body.
Could you feel certainty just like this that you’ve made money in your business before? Feel it... Connect with the feeling and now say to yourself;
New Thought: “I AM making money in my business and what I’m doing DOES work.”
Stay there before your mind goes to that negative place, “buuuuuuuut.”
No, but; simply stop right there and get used to thinking a new thought and feeling the certainty in your body.
THIS is how you’re learning to let go. Yes, it’s true, you’ll need practice. It may take you months or possibly years to stop giving power to negative thoughts that you overthink in your mind. Accept that it’s likely to take a while to unlearn the negative thought pattern.
It’s okay but just commit to practicing these steps.
Let’s look at what overthinking does to your actions and your outcomes.
If you’re thinking the thought, “I can’t make consistent income in my business” then what are your actions? What are your outcomes?
A recent client tells me that she takes naps or that she hesitates and procrastinates sending newsletters to her email list. She doesn’t do any substantial marketing attempts and just scrolls on social media.
The outcome is a premonition of her thought. She doesn’t make consistent income in her business because she’s decided that something is wrong and her marketing doesn’t work.
The prophecy of not making consistent income comes true because of her thinking, then feeling inadequate, followed by lack of action.
When I pointed out to her, that actually, her marketing DOES work and she HAS gotten clients online and made a nice living, she’s since decided to focus her mind on the possibility of creating consistent income instead of ruminating those negative thoughts.
This client went from working the marketing strategies and getting clients to suddenly not believing and manifesting no clients all because of her actions which came out of her overthinking habit.
It’s clear that when you stop overthinking, you’ll feel more confident, take necessary action from a strong belief, and have the outcome you want.
Another client of mine is healing from a failed marriage. She lost all faith in herself and decided that she had no value anymore because of overthinking the same detrimental thoughts over and over again.
This caused her to lose motivation in her business and herself as a “lovable” woman. It wasn’t until we worked on these steps and healed from the pain of the stories from the past, that she finally felt more alive and started getting better results in all areas of her life.
Not only did this help her to feel on fire and on purpose with her business again but she’s feeling more confident as a woman and out in the world dating and having fun.
You see, overthinking and ruminating over and over ANY negative, toxic thought can put you on a path to a less than abundant and desirable outcome.
Step Five: Take control of your life. ‒ Back to the beginning where we realize that our thoughts are controlling the direction of our lives. To finally stop overthinking and take control of your life, you must remind yourself constantly what your goals are and focus only on that.
We never want to stay so focused on our problems without shifting into the solution. Don’t lose your way. Your job is to get clear on your purpose, your mission, and the vision of your life and business so you can focus only on the solutions to get you there, including both the strategy AND the thoughts you think.
Your brain is really good at lying and you need to identify when this happens and redirect your focus on the goal, NOT the problem. Don’t worry, you’ll get really good at this over time.
Step Six: Learn to see fear for what it is. ‒ Fear or being nervous is an emotion that can be confused as excitement. Our job is to practice knowing the difference between the two emotions.
When you’re feeling fear and not going deep into dissecting it, you’ll likely stop yourself from achieving any of your goals and dreams. Procrastination suddenly plays a big role in our lives.
Allowing your thoughts to spiral out of control will defeat you and take you down a dark path and a cycle of self-doubt and lack of confidence.
Learning to change negative habits and stop overthinking means you’ll need commitment and determination. Most of all you’ll need tools. I’ve made my course; Reprogram Your Mind And Eliminate Limiting Beliefs available for all Brainz Magazine readers for FREE. Click here to access the course immediately.
Sharon Lee, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sharon Lee is a top international business coach, and high-performing life coach for entrepreneurs. Having spent many years in poverty and even homelessness, Sharon has uncovered powerful secrets to guide people out of a mediocre state of mind to help transform them into a high-performing mental state to create more success. Sharon has created systems and introduced strategies to underperforming entrepreneurs to unleash their potential. She founded Fearless Pursuits to help entrepreneurs upgrade their minds so they can unlock a life on fire. Her clients benefit from her many programs such as "The Daily Shift", "Sales and Confidence Mastery" as well as her top-rated podcast, "Fearless Pursuits Podcast: Breakthrough To Success". Her mission is to help entrepreneurs create more potential and success through their mind and high-performing strategies.
