How to Overcome Paralysis by Analysis

Do you sometimes feel stuck in a state of inaction due to overthinking? Paralysis by analysis or as it is sometimes called analysis paralysis, is real for many people. Here’s how to break the cycle of getting trapped in a place of inaction by overthinking.

What is Paralysis by Analysis 

Paralysis by Analysis means getting stuck in place due to over thinking a problem. It’s about thinking so much about how to deal with a problem that you don’t actually move beyond thinking to doing. So THE PROBLEM STILL REMAINS.

What Causes Paralysis by Analysis

It doesn’t matter if you see yourself as a thinker or a doer. Each of us will have problems we encounter that we think we can resolve by “thinking it through”.

We can make things better if we just turn it over, and inside out in our head. If we look at it from all sides we’ll find the “solution”.

Sound familiar?

Yes, it can be important to look at the something from all sides, but not if doing so freezes you in place where you are instead of where you want to be.

The problem for most people is that it’s not really the thinking that causes the paralysis. It’s FEAR. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being wrong. Fear of _________ (you fill in the blank). But you get the picture.

Working as an investigator I sometimes tried to analyze information for answers rather than learn the answers by going directly to the source. 

Kind of like Sherlock Holmes. I tried to deduce the information that I needed. But that’s not how real world investigation works especially when you prepare cases for trial and settlement.

You need evidence. Typically in the form of testimony. And the only way you can know what someone else knows is to get that person to tell you what she knows.

Information is a tool. It can help you to make decisions. But being a valuable tool, information can cause you to OVER THINK things and to focus less on the results you are after, and more on the process of getting to those results.

And that’s where you get stuck. Thinking don’t produce results.

In the end, I was always much more effective for my clients when to paraphrase Harry Bosch…I got up off of my butt and knocked on doors. Much more effective. Not even close.

Knocking on a stranger’s door to get information can be scary. Especially in some of the neighborhoods I worked in. But it was the best way to genuinely get information. 

So why, knowing full well as I did that knocking on doors was the best way to get results, did I keep trying the less effective approach of deductive reasoning? 

Yep. Paralysis through analysis. 

I became paralyzed into inaction through fear. Fear of walking up to a total stranger’s door to ask for information. Fear of the reputation of the neighborhood I had to work in. Fear of a witness saying I won’t talk to you. Fear that the witness would judge me negatively as a person for who my client was. 

Fear. Fear. Fear.

But as I’ve previously written, fear is not something you overcome. It’s something you acknowledge, and then move on.

How to Overcome Paralysis by Analysis

Taking action. No matter how small is the key to overcoming paralysis by analysis. 

And you don’t have to swing for the fences to use a baseball analogy. A bunt works quite nicely.

See, once you take that first small step, the other steps will follow. They’ll be easier, and more natural too.

But wait. Doing so feels scary. 

And that’s ok. Fear is something to be respected. But it should never control your actions. 

When you start thinking about the what ifs that can happen if you take that first step, make yourself think about what happens if they don’t happen.

But what if I fail? Well, what if you don’t?

But what if I get it wrong? What if you don’t?

But what if people think it’s stupid? What if they don’t?

Here’s what makes that first step so important. Nothing is cast in stone. You are not stuck with that first step after you make it. 

You can always reverse course and go back to the beginning. Or take a side step.

You might take one step forward, only to have to take two steps back. That happens. But even stepping backwards IS MOVEMENT. And movement IS NOT paralysis.

So think about Harry Bosch…or even Nike, and “just do it”. No matter how small, a step is a step is a step.

So take that first one instead of letting your fears keep you stuck

Have you faced a time where you became stuck in place because you overthought things? Let me know what you did to get yourself moving forward.