Written by: Patience Ogunbona, 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.
It is a very well-known fact that for introverts being with our thoughts is our happy place.
When I was a child, I would ask to go to bed at 12pm every day.
Being from a large family with a small house meant that I struggled with over stimulation from people, noise, and light.
My escape was pretending to be asleep whilst taking most of the time to daydream and create an alternate world in my head.
This was okay as a child, truly what beautiful images I created to escape reality. Since reality was not what I really wanted or could control, daydreaming provided an escape from having to take action or do anything.
Carrying this into adulthood provided an escape that had its benefits but also disadvantages. As I got older, I realised I had to take responsibility to create an alternate reality and outcome for myself.
However, I would take the time to overthink it and begin to shift from daydreaming to catastrophising (imagining the worst possible outcome of an action or event).
When negative events happen, it becomes evidence that everything else will not work, this becomes justification for lack of action.
My happy place also became my dark desperate place and caused anxiety and moodiness.
Sound familiar?
Working with many introverted women, highlights that overthinking is an issue that can limit progress and success.
Overthinking is characterised by imagining the worst-case scenario of actions, using this as a catalyst for staying stuck in an unpleasant situation, by thinking too long and unnecessarily about the risk rather than considering the rewards of action.
Introverts need longer to think things through by default, however we all hear admiration for “fast thinkers” and quick “action takers”.
Introverts resort to overthinking, because of lack of time to think through. For many, overthinking becomes a coping mechanism to keep safe.
Symptoms of overthinking include:
Depression
Mistrust
Underachievement
Anxiety
Hiding
Dwelling on the past
Second guessing
Resistance to action
Rehashing mistakes
Stress.
Procrastination
So, how do you change overthinking habits and take action towards success?
Here are 7 strategies
1. Acceptance: You cannot change what you do not accept to be true, making excuses will keep you stuck. Once you accept the challenge of self-sabotage, you can decide to change.
2.Get out of your head: Since being in your head as an introvert is both your happy and sad place, you must choose how you want it to be. Rather than just daydreaming, build your dreams. Rather than catastrophising, seek out answers. Start by doing a “brain dump”. Learning to get things out of your head on paper and creating projects with start dates for exploration. Learn to focus on the “big picture” and not be bogged down by the details.
3. Strengthen your “guts''. You hear people say, “I can feel it in my guts''. It is said that the “guts’ represents your intuition. Intuition is defined as the ability to acquire knowledge or understand something instinctively without recourse to conscious reasoning. (Wikipedia). You can strengthen your capacity to trust your gut by:
Meditating,
Bringing consciousness to your behaviours and actions so you can evaluate them,
Increasing your self-belief by working on your self-image
4. Get a Thinking or Accountability Partner: Thinking or Accountability partners help you talk and think through to breakthrough. They can help you rationalise your thinking and decisions. A thinking partner can be a coach, peer, colleague, mentor, someone you trust. The key thing is they help you get out of your head, take action and make progress.
5. Surround yourself with action takers: Yes! Introverts love solitude and many hate networking, however your head can be a lonely place. If it is full of turmoil, it can be a scary place too. Being around people who are facing their fears and taking action helps you shift your belief of what is possible for you. Their optimism can rub off on you to “just do it afraid”
6. Beat Procrastination: Overthinking leads to procrastination. You keep putting things off until tomorrow, tomorrow never comes and you stay stuck without results. Contrary to popular belief, procrastination is not caused by just laziness and can be more complex than suffering “fear paralysis”. You can find out more about how to beat procrastination by going here.
7. Develop Leadership Skills: Great leaders equip themselves with the skills to make better decisions. Overtime they gain confidence to make these decisions quicker. A lot of times the actions you need to take will be contingent on other people following through with their part in achieving results. Whilst you cannot force action all the time, increasing your ability to positively influence people will help you be more “fearless”.
It is my hope that you find these tips useful in helping you overcome the ingrained and often challenging habit of overthinking
Remember:
“Your thought life holds the key to success, therefore, change your way of thinking to change your life.
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Patience Ogunbona, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Patience Ogunbona (aka The Visionary Introverted Woman) is a Business Strategist and Transformational Coach. Patience believes that introversion gives her purpose. Alongside her passion for leadership, corporate training and speaking, she has leveraged her introverted strengths to thrive and stand out in an extroverted world. Her signature programme, The Aligned Business Blueprint (ABB) is designed to help ambitious, highly skilled, driven and empathic introverted female entrepreneurs to create an aligned and authentic business that achieves presence and positions them as an authority in their marketplace so they can generate consistent leads, clients and profit.
