If you haven’t read part one in this series, Get More Done #1: How to Confront and Weaken Analysis Paralysis, you might want to head there first.
Why are you doing what you are doing? Without a goal to connect to your actions, it is difficult to maintain momentum and motivation. When the actions of a task are tedious and not intrinsically exciting, it can feel as if there is no larger purpose to them. But there is always a goal, and without acknowledging it, you are walking down a dark and windy path with no map in hand.
Reconnect with Your Overarching Goal
Get Excited. Reframe your work in a way that excites you. What will spark your energy? Use your imagination to create a compelling reason to attract you to your work. Try thinking about how you could persuade someone else to do what you do, and be as genuine as possible. Find the silver lining and magnify it. In his groundbreaking book, The Now Habit, Neil Fiore writes, “The type of work and commitment that is more compatible with the Now Habit is a commitment to a mission that focuses your energies and brings about inner harmony, a commitment that comes from a pull toward a goal and an excitement about the process of getting there.”
Create a Goal Statement. There are many ways to create a goal statement that you can use to remind yourself of your greater purpose. For the purpose of overcoming analysis paralysis, I try to create a statement that is specific to the task at hand and has a deadline within four weeks. Let’s start with an example that I recently utilized (Thank you to Aby Garvey for teaching me this wonderful goal-setting technique!).
“Today is September 1, 2010. I am confident and calm now that my research proposal is complete.”
- Include a specific date in your goal statement. Mark this date in your calendar.
- What will you complete by your set date? Don’t set yourself up to fail. Keep your expectations realistic.
- How will you feel when you complete this goal?
- Create your goal statement using the steps outlined above and display it where you can see it throughout the day in order to maintain focus on why you are doing what you are doing! It can be helpful to create sub-goal statements as well if your project is especially long and arduous. To create a sub-goal statement, you follow the same formula as outlined above, but use specific milestones toward the main goal. For example, “Today is August 12, 2010. I am confident and calm now that my research proposal’s appendix materials are complete.”
Restart Your Engine with Intention and Ease
Now that you have faced your analysis paralysis head on, you have tremendously weakened its resolve. Spend a few minutes refocusing on the task at hand. Do you have everything you need to complete your work? Collate all of your materials near your command center. Then, determine what actions you want to take today. Rather than focus on completion, concentrate on starting to maintain momentum.
Create a Mind-Map. If you are still feeling resistance, utilize a mind-map to break down the actions into micro-actions (each action should take less than 5 minutes). In the middle of the mind-map, you want to write your main goal to keep it front and center. For reference, you can see my simple example below.
Focus on Action. You are ready to take action! Often, preparing to take action can become quite draining so you need to rev yourself up again to actually make progress. To help give you that much-needed push, try the following focusing exercise from The Now Habit. The exercise below is a shorter version than the one outlined within the book (the full exercise begins on page 150 of the paperback copy of the book).
“Focusing is a two-minute procedure for shifting rapidly to the flow state by replacing guilt and stress with stress-free focus on the present.”
With each breath I am tapping into my creative self, opening more and more of my brain power to approach my task. My conscious mind may not know yet what to do, just as it doesn’t know how a puzzle will look until it’s finished. I may not know how I’m going to do this, but soon something will come to me, and then a little bit more will come. I will find the process very interesting, because while I don’t know yet what the solution will be, I do know that I will do it, and that part of me already knows how to do it. It will also be interesting to see how time feels different at this level of the mind and to discover about how much I will accomplish in such a short period of clock time.
Counting up from 1 to 3, I am becoming more quietly alert, and I am now ready to work in a focused, concentrated way, rapidly going from not knowing to knowing how to start: 1. I am more alert, relaxed, and energized, ready to use the superior wisdom of my subconscious mind. 2. I am ready to come all the way up to full alertness with my eyes open, eager to work in conjunction with the creative faculties of my mind. 3.
By taking action, you will begin to create momentum by weakening the resistance you feel between you and the finish line. Moving forward, you will likely confront analysis paralysis again, but each time you do, you can approach it with strength rather than letting it seize your control.
Chime in! What are your thoughts on getting more done or analysis paralysis? Or just say hello, it’s always nice to know that others can relate :).
… For some great discussion on the topic of inspiration, head on over to Spring for a brand new video!
As I write this blog post, I am facing analysis paralysis, one fierce letter at a time. My mind feels like it is miles away, twisting and turning amid my graduate school research. Big projects, looming deadlines, and sometimes even mundane daily events can easily cause one to become detached, an observer of an experience rather than an engaged and mindful participant. Once you feel detachment, you feel less in control of your own life, starting an upsetting cycle that can lead you to over-analyze what you’re doing in an effort to become more immersed in the moment; however, as a result, you dig yourself into a deeper hole, leading to a feeling of being stuck, out of alignment due to analysis paralysis.
Quotes are a wonderful source of inspiration. Many people collect quotes (myself included) or display them in their physical space as personal reminders. I love reading quotes when I need an energy boost or a little help getting motivated to tackle my daunting to-do list. For this post, I decided to share the quotes I return to most often to spark my motivation.
As children, projects were usually fun, creative activities that allowed us to explore ourselves and the world around us. As adults, our projects become a bit more complex-and often downright frightening. Personally, I seem to commit subconsciously to daunting projects on a regular basis. I enjoy the fear and excitement that accompanies projects that are not predefined. Yet when faced with a project that seems completely overwhelming and practically impossible, it’s easy to become paralyzed by fear and resist engaging with it altogether. So how do we move past feeling powerless in order to begin taking action? Below are some of the methods I rely on to turn fear into action.
