Don't overthink it.
Hey friends,
Something I struggle with is paralysis by analysis. I’m writing this as a personal plea not to overthink decisions in the future and hopefully, the message will resonate with many of you too!
This is whenever we want to start a new side project, business idea, or make important life or career decisions we start by planning. We think about one outcome and then another. We think about the niche and design aesthetics (for creators), we think about the possibility of failure, and so on. The problem being we think, we brainstorm, and then we think some more. Then we get stuck in this thinking stage.
And now don’t get me wrong, to an extend forward-planning and risk aversion is important, particularly when it concerns important business or career decisions. But, it also goes without saying that for as long we keep thinking and never step forwards to take action, we can never make any progress. Even worse, we may never realise that the beautiful thing that we’ve been so meticulously planning may not be the right course for us after all.
A recent example of this is me trying to do adult-things. I’m at this interesting landmark in my non-existent medical career where I’m beginning to think about what speciality I might pursue after I graduate later this year. Now, I won’t begin training in said speciality until a few years after graduating, but there’s often a fair deal of portfolio building I need to get in order to make a compelling application. For a while, I’ve been caught up in planning and deeply considering which speciality would best fit the lifestyle I’m after. But how on earth could I possibly decide which speciality I’ll pursue lifelong without having worked a single day as a qualified doctor let alone a particular speciality? So that’s exactly what I’ll do instead of endlessly pondering.
As a result of this event and a number of recent scenarios where I’ve found myself thinking way too much, there are now three questions I ask myself:
- Will I get all the answers from thinking alone?
- Are there any super bad risks from giving it a go?
- If it’s a disaster, do I still learn something valuable?
More often than not, for me at least, these questions will be answered with something along the lines of (1) nope, (2) probably not, and finally (3) yes.
“make noise and listen to the signal.” — found somewhere online.
So, the next time you want to make a decision, ask yourself these questions. If the worst that could happen isn’t that bad anyway then you have no reason not to give it a go and see what happens. This way we don’t get stuck. We try and maybe we’ll fail, but it’s better to fail sooner and move on rather than get stuck planning.
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“the number of hours you put in is only meaningful in terms of what you do with them.” — Mark McCormack (What They Don’t Teach You At HBS)
This Week’s Recommendation 🚀
Article 📝 — Build a business, not an audience.
This article made me think a lot. It’s about the messed-up reality of the creator economy. Up until this point, I’ve been sharing some personal experiences but mostly curating information from books that I’m reading. But, I fear all that I’m really doing is being a polished parrot of the same narrative. As we enter chapter two of this newsletter (one-year approaching soon), I’ll take a break to really consider my north star and re-align accordingly. I encourage you all to read this incredible piece.
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