E30: How to Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action

Overthinking kills momentum, but it doesn’t have to! 

In this short and to the point episode, I’m sharing my simple 3 step strategy to help you break free from analysis paralysis and start making real progress in your business (and life for that matter).

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Transcript

Hello & welcome to Dream Business Dream Life, helping ambitious people, like you, to grow a business they love.

 I’m Emma Hine and I’m on a mission to show you that it is possible to grow a business without sacrificing your life.

Having experienced the rollercoaster of making millions of pounds, but feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and totally unsuccessful, I know first-hand the importance of growing a business on your terms. 

On this podcast I'm going to share with you lots of tips and advice that will enable you to grow a business that gives you the financial freedom to live the life of your dreams while sharing with you some inspirational growth stories from other fabulous business owners.

Ready to live the dream? Then let’s get stuck in…

Hello & Welcome to today’s episode of Dream Business Dream Life. 

Have you ever had an idea that felt so exciting but then you thought about it so much that you talked yourself out of it? Yeah, me too!  

And here’s what I learned the hard way: overthinking doesn’t lead to better results, it just leads to no results. 

In today’s episode I thought we could explore this a little more, after all it is that time of year when everyone is starting to think about setting new goals. And wouldn’t it be lovely if this time round it could be different, less overthinking and more action.

Overthinking has nearly stopped or delayed me doing so much in both life and business over the years.

 I nearly didn’t host my first Growth Event, yet the Growth Event is what I would consider the heart of my business. It is certainly the thing that boosted my visibility and built my connections and growth. I could not imagine my business without that event right at the heart of it.

I have overthought my messaging, my offers and my processes.

 I have said no to things for no reason other than my overthinking telling me I am not ready.

 From a personal perspective have wanted to spend more time in Spain for years, the digital nomad lifestyle is my dream, and I have got so close, so many times. Yet overthinking has stopped me doing it…but next year that changes as my first 8ish week trip to Spain is very much happening in the new year.

So why do we do it?

 Why do we stop ourselves from doing the thing we know we need to do to get us the growth we want?

 Why do we stop ourselves from doing the things we really want to do? The things that mean we are actually living our dream.

 We listen to that annoying voice in our head that says Are you sure? What if it doesn’t work? Who are you to think you can do something like that?

 And then the overthinking begins…

 And suddenly it feels safer, less uncomfortable to do nothing, to not do it after all, to put it on hold…again!

 But what happens here is the idea goes away for a while, but it keeps coming back and every time it does you are more frustrated with yourself. 

 You are beating yourself up for wasting time, for not just getting on with it. 

 And then there is the other person that has launched the exact thing you wanted to launch but chickened out of doing…that cuts deep, right?

 So, what can we do to stop this never-ending cycle of overthinking and in action?

 Let me share with you a simple 3 step strategy that will help. A strategy that I now use, a strategy that I have seen work over and over again for me and my clients.

 Step One is to limit the time you get to make the decision. 

 Part of the reason we overthink things is simply the fact that we allow ourselves too long to think, too long to let that annoying voice in our head take over.

 So, when you have a decision to make I want you to set yourself a timer, be it 10 minutes or 15 minutes, and I want you to use that time to brainstorm all the possible ideas and outcomes and when the timer goes off I want you to say yay or nay…no exceptions, no excuses just run with your decision.

 We need to trust our gut more; I have not known mine let me down yet!

 So, you are in…you are the doing the thing let’s look at step 2.

 Step 2 is to take one teeny action immediately.

 This is going to give you that extra buy in to your decision.

 So, for me, and if you follow me on socials, you will have seen this happen, my teeny action is always to tell people I am doing the thing. 

 I do not always say what the thing is or when it is happening, but I share the fact it is happening publicly, not only does this reinforce the decision for me it also holds me accountable for not changing my mind.

 I did this exact thing with this podcast, with my membership and more recently with the fact that I will be testing out the digital nomad life in 2025.

 The action you take can be anything, but it needs to happen immediately after the timer goes off.

 And the final step is to embrace imperfection.

 Progress beats perfection and by taking this one teeny action you have made progress so now you need to keep doing it: to keep taking those little steps.

 You have to expect your first attempt to be a little messy, that’s normal and absolutely ok. 99% of the time the only person that sees it as messy is you. Own it and be honest with your community; they will respect you so much for it and the chances are whatever you have been putting off they have been waiting for.

 I am the queen of messy action, and I honestly believe it is one of the biggest things, combined with keeping things simple, that has got me the results I have had over the last year or two. 

If I had given myself more time to perfect things I would still be waiting to launch the podcast now, I would still be overthinking the tec, the name, the graphics and everything in-between. That is a lot of visibility I would have missed out on.

 So there you go three simple steps to stop you overthinking to get you doing the things.

 1.   Limit the time you allow yourself to make the decision

2.   Do one teeny thing straight away to cement the decision

3.   Embrace imperfection and trust that messy action is ok

 So what is one thing that you have been overthinking lately? Go and apply these 3 steps to it and let’s see where it takes you.

 Drop me a DM and let me know how you get on.

 Thank you for listening; see you next time…

You have been listening to Dream Business Dream Life with Emma Hine. If you want to know more about how I can help you to build your dream business and your dream life, then visit my website emmehine.co.uk. Until next time remember you really can have it all!