Creative Block is a weekly newsletter that gives you a glimpse into my life, creativity, design, and music. It's like a little pick-me-up that you get delivered straight to your inbox each week.
I have a problem: I overthink. A lot. Like, A LOT. My decision paralysis keeps me from moving forward because I scrutinize every choice like it’s a high-stakes chess match.
I just finished reading a book about overthinking called "Soundtracks" by Jon Acuff (free audio on Spotify). As a music lover, the title intrigued me. What do soundtracks have to do with overthinking, I wondered?
Diving into the book felt like finally identifying the elusive melody playing in my mind. The book is titled "Soundtracks" because our repetitive thoughts about ourselves and our overthinking are like broken records spinning endlessly.
Imagine your thoughts as an album. What are your tracks? Mine are as follows:
And those are just the top 4. My album probably has 20 tracks minimum. What about yours?
Overthinking is often fueled by fear and insecurity, like shadows lurking in the corners of our minds. One quote from the book that struck a chord with me was, "FEAR, INSECURITY, DOUBT DOES NOT TAKE WORK." Initially, I felt offended. How dare you minimize my fears and doubts? But Acuff wasn’t dismissing them. He wanted us to realize that it's easy to default to fear because it’s the path of least resistance. It’s simpler to say, "I won’t be successful in that area" than to actually take the plunge and try.
Last year, I launched a jacket, a basketball, a scarf, and earlier this year, another jacket. What most people don't know is that it took me three years of overthinking and doubting.
Our overthinking and doubts often aren’t grounded in reality. How can you doubt something you haven’t even tried? Now, I’m not saying every endeavor will be a smash hit. There needs to be wisdom in our choices, but don’t discard your ideas without giving them a shot.
Here’s some advice to help with overthinking:
You can do more than you think if you do more than you think.
Dispute your negative thoughts. Really ask, is this fear real or made up?
The antidote to overthinking isn’t overthinking. It’s action.
Some things require early planning and some require early action. It pays to know the difference. (Excerpt from James Clear’s newsletter)
Overthinkers try to foresee the future without taking any action in the present.
The best way to stop overthinking is to do small tasks. Baby steps go a long way.
P.S. I just opened up my shop again! If you want to order anything, check out the links below! Working on more merch this fall and more things! Stay tuned.
Made up fears are such a real thing (ironically.) A majority of the time, I think that people will share the exact same negative thoughts I share about my own work, when really, they're really just caught up in their own lives and too busy to really scrutinize me the way I do. Most of the time, they either don't notice, or the ones who do, actually enjoy my work.
You had me at stop overthinking…I loved every sentence of this.