The Paralysis of Analysis: Understanding the Pitfalls of Overthinking
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein
It’s time. You sit at a coffee shop, open your keyboard to begin the next great American novel, and…nothing. Not one word will come out. The faucet of creativity has kinked and run dry.
Then, the worst of it comes flowing out: the doubt, the anger, the regret, the fear, the pity. If only that spew of self-loathing could be redirected to something productive, it would all be so easy actually to work on the [Insert creative genius here].
Anyone working on anything from an essay to a screenplay has experienced some form of other thinking. There are entire cottage industries out there solely to profit off your doubts.
Can’t write? We have a course for that. Stuck in Act 2? Our coaches can help. Are you a creative genius with a brilliant story but lacking the linguistic know-how to pen the next great horror-thriller-romance? Hire our team of AI Ghost Writers to pen your macabre tale.
To be fair, there is room for artists to share their processes better. For some reason, perhaps this goes all the way back to the Renaissance when painters coveted their secret blue recipe, artists horde their processes. We are fickle over how we do what we do, and when we do share it, we feel like some great secret is forever lost.
To create a community akin to a college football team or a pipeline for creative hacks, that’s the act not the noun, has always been the artist’s dream. Sadly, it has not produced anything but a field day for grifters.
And yet, here we are. Operating often on feel and regularly experiencing imposter syndrome. Alas, what are we to do with idle hands and active imaginations?
Overthinking, often described as “analysis paralysis,” is a cognitive process where individuals become trapped in an endless loop of rumination.
Should we play the part this way or that? How do I start this next sentence? What will my legacy be? Will my parents be proud? I wonder if this work will get me laid? An agent? Fame? Money? Please let it be money…
While some level of thinking is important for making decisions and solving problems, overthinking can be corrupt and kill the creative process. Constantly dwelling on the past, worrying about the future, or obsessively scrutinizing the present can lead to obsessive thoughts, irrational fears, and a heightened sense of uncertainty. These are little daggers, bleeding us dry over time: death from 1,000 papercuts.
This is the slow, grey death of the artist, that deep routed desire to shut off and shut out the noise.
The first thing to understand is that all artists face this demon. Steven Pressfield’s “The War of Art” expertly handles this battle by labeling the monster “Resistance.”
This blustering opposition takes many forms, such as procrastination, self-doubt, fear, and a litany of other masks to hinder the creative process.
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” — Scott Adams
II. The Causes of Overthinking
“Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse
We’re all guilty of doing this. We have artificial arguments with ourselves about things that never happened or role play scenarios of the terrors to come. The holy trinity of overthinking: perfectionism, fear, and confidence.
Artists have great taste, which makes them a creator in the first place. Be you a painter, a writer, an actor, or a musician, it all started with a deep love of your chosen form. You’ve likely consumed far more than your peers of a particular medium.
Play your cards right, which means the greats flow through you, like the Jedi of old. Remember, our tastes consistently exceed our talents. There is a meme best exemplifies this, “I’ll never be as great as the old masters.”
Individuals who establish impractical expectations for themselves often become caught in a pattern of excessively examining their choices and actions, apprehensive of disappointment.
There are two minds: the creator and the editor. Don’t run the software at the same time. Use that analytical brain to improve the art, but don’t let it stifle the inner child who just wants to run.
“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” — Sylvia Plat
The Fear of Failure is almost oxymoronic and is born more out of ego than reality. The reality is we will fail. Never tried, never failed, ever tried, ever fail, as they say.
No one escapes without scars. Failure teaches us who we are. The obstacle is the way as Ryan Holiday borrowed from Marcus Aurelius.
When individuals fear making mistakes or facing negative consequences, they may engage in exhaustive mental rehearsals, trying to anticipate every possible outcome. It’s a sort of mental chess, only there is no real opponent, and Resistance can see your every move. Thus, it is a self-defeating process.
The fact of the matter is failure is our ally, not our enemy.
Believing we are the prodigal son, the Kwisatz Haderach, and compounding it with a fear of failure — for if we fail, we prove we are not as great as we believe — doubles down our decompressing self-esteem.
When we fail, we learn how to get back up. The more you write, the more you can say, “I wrote before, and I will write again,” as Papa Hemingway liked to quip.
The secret is, if there is such a thing, is that work breeds work. We cannot wait for inspiration. It may never come. We must build our confidence through struggle. It’s the only way.
“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes at nine every morning.” — William Faulkner
III. The Consequences of Overthinking
“A brave man dies once, and cowards? A thousand times over.”
This is true of artists as much as soldiers. Each time we go to create, we go into battle. We do not conquer demons. We wake up every morning and face them again and again.
When we feel overwhelmed by our thoughts and doubts, we may delay taking action or making decisions, hoping that more time will bring clarity. This delay often leads to missed opportunities and increased stress.
When we drag our feet and put ourselves through the wringer, we exhaust our minds, increase our stress, and, more than likely, procrastinate on the task at hand.
The constant analysis and rumination drain mental energy, leaving individuals feeling fatigued, stressed, and overwhelmed. Furthermore, in today’s world, we will likely fill this time with social media or games. This, not surprisingly, drains us more than fuels us. This mental exhaustion can impair cognitive function and decision-making.
Thus, our creativity is stunted. Our focus narrows, and our mind becomes a wasps’ nest of problems, not our own. Thus, the creative process is obscured.
Now, our process halted, and stress and anxiety increased. We fixate on our worries and problems, our lack of excellence, and send our bodies into fight or flight.
The downward spiral begins. And every problem we’ve ever faced and failed is drawn to the maelstrom.
IV. Strategies to Overcome Overthinking
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
A. Inverted Thinking
So it’s a thing. Acknowledge it. Your mind loves to present all the problems at once. Great. Use it. Use the Resistance’s superpower against it.
Inversion thinking is a mental model and a great one for your toolkit as an artist. Human beings are problem-solvers. But what we’re even better at is recognizing the problems before we get started. So, use it.
The brain finds threats better than it finds solutions. Stuck on an idea? List the problems. Can’t work out a plothole? Think about it like a reviewer and write all the issues out with your story.
Play the mind against itself. Reverse the process and arrive at better decisions by allowing the muscle to do what it does best. This allows us to:
- Identify Key Risks
- Consider Worst Case Scenario
- Utilize Constraints as Advantages
- The rules make the game
- Analyze Missed Opportunities
Now, we can lay out the issues before us and attack them head-on.
B. Lower the Stakes
Remember: it doesn’t matter. This may be hard to swallow, especially if you are still tethered to perfectionism, but who wrote the best-selling novel of 1852? How about 1952? What screenplay won the Oscar for best writing in 1947?
Most of the world doesn’t care about what we’re doing. Our stories are ours to tell. Even if we’ve cultivated 1,000 true fans, odds are they are not hanging on our every word. People have their own lives to live. They’re not waiting for you to cure their troubles.
By lowering the stakes and not thinking in grandiose terms, we can better handle the challenges in front of us. Don’t worry about writing 100 pages or three chapters; start with two good pages. Then, see what happens.
Don’t succumb to the Ego’s need for recognition; that’s the enemy. We need to settle down and do the work. Daydreaming of book signings at Barnes & Noble may be fun, but it does nothing to finish the task at hand.
Overcoming perfectionism and setting realistic expectations can be key to reducing overthinking.
Note: We always hear about great athletes using a chip on their shoulders to spur them on to victory. Michael Jorden invented problems with opponents. Tom Brady always held on to the fact he was drafted so low. This is an effective tool one can use, but go to the well too often, and it will drain the joy out of the creative process. Yes, someone in your youth told you you’d never make it as an artist, actor, or writer. Fuck them. Move on. There’s no point holding onto those bad vibes. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
C. Deep Work
Artists need empty space. We need time. We need boredom. We need room to dream.
“Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. — ALBERT EINSTEIN”
We don’t need endless streams of information flowing into our brains at all times. In today’s digital age, an overload of information equals an overloaded brain. We lose our train of thought; we no longer see what is essential because too many inputs are rolling in at once.
Limiting exposure to unnecessary information and setting boundaries on screen time can help individuals focus their attention and reduce mental clutter. Decide what is essential.
Then, once you do, make room for it. A writer can’t write if they don’t give themselves the time to do it. We need long, interrupted periods to create.
Perhaps the best example I’ve ever seen of this is Neil Gaiman’s daily routine. Featured in his Masterclass, Gaiman says, “I can write or be bored.” The author takes a fountain pen and a notepad to his gazebo every morning and sits. The deal he’s bartered with himself is he can A) Write, B) Be bored. It’s the purest form of the creative process I’ve ever heard.
Deep work refers to focused and undistracted concentration on a cognitively demanding task. It involves immersing oneself entirely in meaningful, complex work, often free from interruptions or shallow tasks like email or social media.
This is, and I can’t emphasize this enough, essential.
Remember, however, we do, in fact, need breaks. Humans are not designed to work on challenging tasks for over 90 minutes. We need to oscillate. Be on or off; do not idle.
That said, if the wave comes, ride the wave, baby. There is nothing better than being in the zone. It’s the high we all crave. So when it comes, use it.
Conclusion
“Don’t take any gup from these swine,” said Hunter S. Thompson.
In short, there is no conquering these mountains. Once we reach the peak, if we ever do, all that is left to see if the other mountains we have not summited.
It’s the creative process, not the finale. Art is the work it takes to make the final product. The product itself is a work of art.