One of the greatest threats to our growth as humans, that hinders us from making progress, is called overthinking. The way our human psychology is structured is that we are always scared of the unknown. We want to work on something, but we spend lots of time overthinking about the outcome. We are scared of how it is going to turn out to be. And the bad thing is that, the more time we spend on the whole process of overthinking, the more time we are actually wasting. This is one area that I have been personally struggling with. And today, I am going to share with you how I personally overcome overthinking, and how that is making an impact to my growth and progress.
My First Medium Blog Article
Okay…
So let me take you back to my junior years of college, back when I was in campus. If you have been reading most of my content here, you probably know that I was so much obsessed with programming back in the days. So, there was this one time that I led some of my colleagues to an inter-campus coding competition. I was the most ‘coding enthusiast’ guy in my class, so I was the main lead in the team. Now, we participated in the competition, and my lecturer was happy about that. And she approached me and said, ‘Hey, why not share your experiences with the rest of the class?’ She also wanted me to be in the front-line of actually making other students in my class aware of coding skills, and building their interests.
Well, I was positive of the idea, and I really wanted to do it. The bad thing (and the most interesting as I see now) is that I spent weeks and weeks trying to figure out how I would approach my class about the whole thing. I spent a lot of time figuring out the best approach to doing it. Finally, I got the balls to do it inside a medium blog, which was my first time writing a blog article on the web. For the most weeks, I was overthinking of what my classmates would think of me if I randomly come talking to them about coding. And even when I was writing the blog, I was scared of how it is going to look like on the internet.
Setting up my website
Moving forward…
I was now becoming comfortable with this kind of ‘discomfort’ experiences. For the time that I was still in campus, I was becoming comfortable sharing my interests and skills with my class. But I got another challenge of my life. After I had published the medium blog article, I thought I liked it. And I thought I would actually love to write even more blog articles on the internet. So, I was looking for a platform to doing it, and the best option was actually coming up with my own blog website. Again, a scary challenge to myself. It was bursting my head off. I was thinking, ‘What am I actually doing?’ What was I about to get into?
Sharing my thoughts through random articles on the internet?
For the most times, I was fighting with two things. One, the idea of putting my thoughts and ideas on the internet. What would it look like? What would I really be talking about? And what about the world? What would the world think of me when they read the things I am talking about? The second thing I was fighting with, was the cost of putting a website online. Will my money and time be worth it? Basically, there was a lot going on inside my head on whether I should set up my blog or not. Finally, I got the balls again. What have I got to lose? I gotta share my thoughts on the web. And that is how I finally made the decision to set up my first website on the internet.
The fear of introducing my work to the world
Overthinking is real. And I hate it (especially now). Even when I had finally made the decision to set up my website, there was another obstacle. I was afraid of actually introducing and sharing my content to the world. Look…I don’t think you understand what it feels like. Heck, you don’t really understand. What will I really be doing? Most of my friends will not understand what I am doing. None of my family members has ever done this before. What am I actually doing here?
I must just say, it cost me acquiring two more balls to actually introduce my blog website and put my content out here. The most interesting part is that, the moment I opened myself to facing the unknown outcomes, it changed everything.
What if I just do it?
So, the reason why I am sharing this experiences with you is not because I like writing. The main reason of writing this article, is to share with you the lessons that I have learnt from all these experiences. Throughout my experiences, I have learnt that overthinking is one thing that you should always fight to overcome. And the main reason is because, overthinking blind-folds you from seeing the opportunities that come with doing what you want to do.
The way that I have learnt to overcome overthinking is that I always focus on my expected results, rather than the unknown outcomes (a.k.a what the rest of the world would think). And most of the times, I have realized that focusing on the results that I want to see is more important than anything else. I like doing and exploring the things that I love. And I love seeing myself grow. That’s all that matters. So, if what I am doing will contribute to my growth, I don’t have to overthink on whether to do it or not. I just have to do it.
For example, when I am about to do a new article for my blog, sometimes I tend to overthink on the best copy to write. And to overcome this overthinking, I always just sit with a blank screen in front of me and ask, ‘What if I just do it?’. What if I just start typing? And every time I stop overthinking and start to type, I always end up with a full article that I am happy about.
How it is impacting my growth and progress
This applies to almost every other area of my life. If I find myself in a situation that is getting me out of my comfort zone, I ask the same question. What if I just do it? If I want to explore a new field and I am not sure about the outcome, what do I have to lose? What if I just do it and see the progress? Most of the times, taking the step of doing the action and watching the results, is always fun. And I believe it’s the only key to growth and progress.
I feel like the world is an enormously wide field with a ton of sports to play. And as humans, our growth inside this field lies on how much we are ready to participate in the sports. How much are we open to explore the opportunities around us? Most of the times, the only barrier is overthinking on the unknown outcomes. If we open ourselves to doing the exploration and tracking the process, that is when real growth and progress happens.
