Over-thinking stops trust
If you’re anything like a lot of the people I work with, one of the biggest things you can do to take yourself away from living in your genius, is to think about it. Or to be more precise, to think too much about it. Please stop over-thinking – it’s a particularly insidious form of procrastination. If you’re not sure you’re an over-thinker, then you probably are! But if you want to be sure (no over-thinking there!) psychotherapist Amy Morin’s article may help.
You probably know, at an intuitive level, what kind of work means you coming from a place of genius. But then you start thinking: I can’t make a living doing that! Or you say to yourself: am I really good enough to claim that as my genius? Or you start asking: why would anyone pay me to do that, surely everybody can do it for themselves?
Or here’s a big one: that’s too much like fun, I’m not supposed to get paid for having fun!
And all of that over-thinking stops you finding the courage and the confidence to just get out there and do your thing.
Brilliantly.
Looking for problems
We tend to believe that if we spend some time to work out the logic behind how stuff works, we’ll gain the confidence to go do it. But in my experience, the opposite is often the case.
When you let yourself just go do what you do well, it tends to work. And that brings confidence that it’s going to carry on working.
But if you insist on ‘thinking it through’ first, that’s when your unconscious mind (bless it) is going to serve up all the ways it could go wrong. That’s its job – to stop you messing up and putting yourself in danger. But sometimes it over-does things a bit.
As you spend time making sure you understand it all, you are going to come up with all manner of ways to mess it up. The unconscious mind is very creative that way. And having thought up all that stuff, you can end up convinced that you won’t know how to deal with it properly. That there’s too much stuff you haven’t experienced yet. But here’s the thing: it’s stuff that isn’t going to actually happen in 99.9% of cases.
Deliberation = De-Liberation
So instead of confidently getting on with the job and creating delighted clients – and delight in the work for yourself – you get yourself tied up in ‘what-ifs’ and ‘yeah-buts’. The sense of joy and expansiveness from doing great work is replaced with fear and worry and limitation.
And that holds you back.
Quite literally, all that deliberation brings the exact opposite of the freedom to be yourself that you seek – de-liberation.
Trust to stop over-thinking
So how can you stop over-thinking?
The best way to reassure yourself about your genius is to get it out there. When you’re spending time doing great work and creating lots of value for your clients, you won’t have time to worry about whether you’re good enough. You’ll just deal with whatever stuff the work might throw at you. When (and if) it comes up. And the chances are, you’ll do it with ease and grace. And genius.
When people value the work you do for them, it will seem absurd to have been so worried about getting paid for doing what you love. Your boldness and confidence in doing things that are a complete mystery to them will see them delighted to be able to pay you to do it so well.
And to get to that point, you have to trust. Trust your knowing about where your genius lies. Trust your knowing that it’s something the world needs. Trust your knowing that you are – when all’s said and done – really rather good at it!
So please, stop thinking about it – and get your genius out into the world.
PS: did you spot the pun in the image – “stop” over “thinking”?
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