Analysis Paralysis. Is Overthinking Decisions Holding You Back?

By Nicola Le Lievre

Founder of The Red Lipstick Effect and owner of global award-winning beauty salon intherapy, Nicola has experienced the feeling of inefficiency due to analysing decisions in fear of making the wrong ones. She has done many years of self-development as an NLP certification to work on her mindset.

Progress over perfection has been vital to me. Procrastinating over a task to make it “perfect” can cause delay and therefore missing out on the result you originally wanted to achieve.

Have you experienced so many ideas floating in your head that you felt immobilised by having to make a decision? Therefore, you get overwhelmed and start overanalysing. Perhaps you are wasting more time in no action because you fear doing the wrong thing.

We have more choices and options than ever; information overload can quickly overwhelm us, and inaction and procrastination take over.

When overwhelmed and confronted by a difficult choice, our instinct is often not to choose anything at all. We often walk away from a decision empty-handed because of the responsibility and potential regret of choosing the wrong option, even when all options are good.

Do you get overwhelmed when presented with too many options? This often happens to me and got me thinking if it is happening to our customers also. Less is more, and too much choice is stressful.

I like to use the example of my husband getting overwhelmed when going to Subway. He feels that there are so many options, and the staff ask many questions, “what bread, what topping, salad dressing” etc. He is happy just with a plain cheese and salami sandwich. Although many options sound like a great idea, streamlining offerings can sometimes be more effective.

At intherapy, we sell a beautiful range of candles. I liked having one of each scent in the collection, usually over ten candles. I noticed our guests took so long to decide or would not take any. I now have 4-6 of our top sellers and have an increase in units sold.

You cannot delegate to another person to assist you and lend decision support. For example, when unsure what to order from a menu, we often ask the waiter or waitress to tell us what they think or order the same thing as the person dining with us.

As a business owner, there are always lots of decisions to be made. It would be best if you were clear about where you are going or what you want to achieve to make the right decision in the first place. However, fear of failure often keeps us from getting started and trusting in the process. Not overthinking what needs to be done and starting at the top of my to-do list has helped me gain momentum to keep pushing through. Once you gain momentum, you will find it much easier to keep going

Five tips to keep you on track.

Practice acceptance

Accept your discomfort and sit with it. Your brain is pushing you to keep thinking and analysing, but this can be exhausting. Failing to interrupt this thought pattern will only lead to more frustration and overwhelm.

Structure your day for the decisions that matter most.

A great book to read is Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy. He talks about eating your biggest frog (meaning task) first thing in the day, so you have a sense of achievement.

Another great book is the 5-second rule by Mel Robbins, she talks about counting down from 5 and then jumping straight into the task and not overthinking or analysing.

Work on self-confidence

If some of your previous decisions have had less than positive outcomes, you might have a tendency to doubt yourself and worry that all of your decisions are bad.

Try to set this fear aside and leave the past in the past. Ask yourself instead what you learned from those decisions and how they helped you grow.

Don’t try to tackle big decisions in the afternoon.

If you are caught in a downward spiral of analysis paralysis late in the day, put aside everything and work on an unrelated task. Or call it quits for the day. Return to it in the morning with a fresh perspective.

Trust your instincts

Not everyone has an easy time trusting their instincts, But “gut feelings” can serve you well… if you let them.

“Get out of your own way… stop the paralysis by analysis…decide what you want, create a simple plan, and get moving!” – Steve Maraboli.

Sometimes the most significant thing holding me back is getting in my way. Do not get overwhelmed; just get started. Small steps consistently are the key. Where focus goes, energy flows.

Much love & success, you got this.

Nicola ox

Download a free guide to finding your tribe at my website below. If you would like to book a virtual coffee with me and find out how I can support you, visit: www. nicolalelievre.com