Stop to think...or not

Sometimes, you just have to stop thinking. Granted, most people’s problems seem to be related to them not stopping AND thinking, but sometimes, you get stuck because you think too much.


There are two ways to over-analyze something. One (my personal favorite) is to pick up all the little things no one else notices and give them a good long look. This is often aggravating to the person (or people) otherwise involved for a variety of reasons. But sometimes it results in little gems that lead you to a whole new place to view the world from.

That’s the point at which you should stop thinking. It’s the point at which a lot of us stop and do more of it instead—usually along the lines of “how did I get here, where do I go next”—instead of taking a breath and a bottle of water and fifteen minutes or so to enjoy the view. Worse, we sometimes follow “how did I get here” with “what should I have done differently?” (More on this particular bit tomorrow.)

The other way to over-analyze something is to keep thinking about it—planning, planning, planning. Writing lists and goals and ideal scenes and lists and goals and oh-look-at-that-way-to-do-it and lists … you get the idea. The point of a to-do list is to, well, DO. I love lists—write ‘em all the time. But we often spend too much time thinking about what we want, and not nearly enough time creating it. Trust me, if writing it down was what made it happen, I’d be the richest size six on the planet. (More on this later, too. The writing down stuff, not the size six stuff.)

Sure, to be conscious about your life, instead of drifting through, you’re going to have to think about it. But to create it, you’re going to have to stop thinking and just do.