Mindset Monday - Stop Overthinking

This is episode 153 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, vitality and peak performance coach, Kari Schneider.

Okay, welcome, welcome. Mindset Monday. I am looking to get this going, but we have been having some Internet issues, so hopefully this works. And the topic is so prime for this situation because it's overthinking. And in overthinking I'm doing it right now because I've been having these Internet issues. And then as soon as something goes wrong and doesn't go the way you want it to, you add more thoughts to it that don't necessarily help. Are you thinking for the solutions or are you thinking for the extra problems that are coming along with it? So our topic today is all about overthinking and why overthinking is a problem. Well, we'll go into that right away, but we wanna really get to what to do for a solution, how to distinguish whether you're overthinking or actually looking at the details, and how to get to a solution that's gonna work for going in the direction that you really want to go. So today, overthinking, why is it a problem? It creates non existent problems that are essentially worry. So when we think more and more and more, we've got this manifestation of imagining what could go wrong when none of that's actually happened. And that can be one of the signs that you're overthinking. Another one would be ruminating. So thinking a thought that might be a sad thought or a dark thought, or a problematic thought that really brings you into an emotional space that you don't want. And thinking that over and over again when it's not serving you in any real way and then another one happens. In overthinking, a lot is replaying, replaying a lot of the things that have happened. And this has to do with typically with not letting go of the past, having things that have gone on where there's a lot of should have or could have or I wish that had happened or this had happened. And it's all a lot of thought patterning that can be very destructive, especially when it's the past, because nothing can change, nothing can change about what has happened. So this overthinking can show up in a lot of ways from a future standpoint in worrying about what could be happening, but also from a past standpoint as well, where you're looking at what happened and thinking it should be different and thinking it over and thinking about different scenarios and thinking and thinking and thinking. This is where overthinking is like over drinking. It seems like the thing to do at the time because it's really tempting, but at the same time it doesn't lead to any outcome that is good. So overthinking is that thing that's overindulgent for our brain, but it's not serving the direction that we really want to go. So an example of this right now is if it's pertinent to sport. I think of the Olympics. I think of how many athletes I've worked with who have either been trying for an Olympic goal or a national team goal or, or something that's really, really big in their eyes at that time. But what often would happen would be the worrying about what the coach might think, worrying about whether they could make the team or not, worrying about their own performance that hasn't even happened yet. And at the same time, going into the past and analyzing and reanalyzing what performance had just happened. So those are very much perfectionist behaviors. And overthinking happens a lot in perfectionist behaviors. And right now I'm experiencing some of that in that worry about looking at what's coming forward in all of the changes that I've made to my business. So this will happen in business, this will happen in sport, this will happen in life in all of these areas where we've got some level of anxiety or, or we have some level of maybe even upset around something that's happened in the past, or worry about something that's happening in the future. But that worry or that upset or that anxiety is coming from the things that we're thinking. It's coming from the overthinking typically. So in this scenario, how are you going to distinguish between? Are we analyzing a performance in order to find what needs to be improved upon, or are we overthinking? Are we looking into the future at the possible problems, or are we creating unnecessary worry via overthinking? How we distinguish between overthinking and something that's actually making your business bulletproof or turning your physicality into something that's ideal for your sport? How are you going to distinguish between the two? Is your intentionality. Are you intentionally looking at the worst case scenario as a one time thing so that you can analyze how you're going to deal with that if that happens and do it in a one time scenario? So you've looked at the worst case scenario, you've analyzed all of your possible actions with that and possible outcomes. That is intentionally looking into what you want to do and making a plan that is very different from overthinking all of the possible awful things that could happen and then creating a whole bunch of worry or creating a whole bunch of problems around what you've created as awful things that would happen in the future or could happen in the future. That's a very different thing than planning and strategizing for any possible problem or worst case scenario that could come up and the reverse goes as well. Are you looking at the past in order to learn from the past so that you don't do the same thing again? Or looking at the past in order to find the errors in a performance so that you can work on improving on that performance? Or. Or are you looking at the past and going over and over things that can't be changed in a way that isn't looking for a learning or a solution? It's very intentional. If the thoughts are popping in at a time when you don't want them to, or you continually to think, continue to think about something at a time where you're not intending to. That's when you know you're likely going into an overthinking situation scenario instead of specifically strategizing over what you want to improve upon or specifically strategizing around what could happen that you want to have a solution for a plan for ahead of time. They're very, very different things, but our brain would like to trick us into, oh no, I better go over this over and over again. And if it's happening at times that you don't want it to, then you know you're likely into an overthinking scenario. And I catch myself in this because there's so many changes happening in my business, there's so many future plans that I'm creating, and then at the same time my brain wants to go into some worry about, oh well, what if that happens? What if we don't have enough money for that budget? What if that person doesn't show up? That person bailed, now what am I going to do? And going through way more problems or creating more possible problems instead of creating possible solutions. And that's how this topic came up for me is finding myself overthinking, especially at night or at times when I didn't want to be working. It wasn't a time that I'd planned to work and instead my brain just wanted to keep overthinking. So here are some questions that I've Created to direct my brain and and also questions I've created for my clients so that you don't find yourself caught in that destructive mind pattern of overthinking. So here is the first one. Key questions. Number one, what can I control? Especially if you're looking at something from the past, you can't control anything that happened in the past. So what can I control? I can control what's going on now. I can control my own actions now. So what can I control? Becomes a really useful directing question so that it doesn't allow your brain to keep going over things that are completely said and done. Number two, what are possible solutions? We want to look for solutions. Instead of creating problems with a thing, thoughts in our mind, we often think that we are looking at getting prepared for any possible problem. But instead what our brains can do is actually create problems with the thoughts that we're thinking. So the question is, what are the solutions? So we direct our brain to look for solutions instead of continually looking at problems or creating problems. So number three, Three is what can I let go of? What can I actually completely, utterly drop? Just drop it. Completely let go of something that isn't working. That a thought, maybe that keeps coming up. Maybe there's a ruminating thought, what can I completely let go of? Especially things from the past if it means letting an old mistake go or forgiving someone that you have hung on to some regret or anger about. So what can I actually let go of that brings you back into the present? Typically, if you're looking at hanging on to things from the past. And number four, where is my attention most useful now? To get you out of the past and get you out of the future. Future. That is really key. By asking where is my attention most useful for now? Right now? Getting into the present. Instead of worrying about the future or ruminating about the past, getting into the present is a key way to prevent the brain from overthinking said brain too many times here. So where is my attention most useful right now? Staying in the present is key to redirect your brain from overthinking. And number five, what is working? Sometimes when I get into an overthinking pattern, it's because I'm looking at all the things that might not be working. A bunch of the things that didn't work in the past, a bunch of the things that aren't working now, a bunch of the things I'm worried won't work in the future. So the question of what is working right now, what is working and what is going well for me, and drawing the brain's attention to those things is another amazing way to prevent and stop the overthinking. So go over those five questions again for you so you can stop any overthinking you have going on. What can I control? What are possible solutions? What can I let go of? Where is my attention most useful right now and what is working? Those five questions will be very powerful to stop overthinking, especially since overthinking won't serve us. It can be very destructive. So let's use those questions to get us in the direction that we want to go. It's been very useful for me. I know it's been useful for some of my clients as well. So give that a try to get you out of the past, out of worry, worrying in the future, and right into the now for the solutions you want and need for whatever is going on for you. Have a beautiful rest of your Monday. Let this kick you off into your week using your brain powerfully with a big positive mindset and watch some Olympics. If you've got Olympics from some replays or you've got the chance to watch any live, then get on those Olympic viewing and supporting actions. Have a beautiful rest of your day.

If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team Podcast, you'll love being on the team. The Empowered Team runs year round. It is our group coaching and accountability program where we take mindset and physical performance concepts and break them down to usable action steps that optimize results. To join, email us@info powerconditioning.com with subject line team. That's info powerconditioning.com we can't wait for you to be on the team.