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Gina Prosch

finding joy one day at a time

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overthinking

Enough with the Thinking!!!

I make my family crazy.

At lunch we’ll have the “what should we have for supper” conversation, and it inevitably goes something like this.

Dear Son (DS): What’s for supper?
Me: Hmmmm, what sounds good?
Dear Husband (DH): What are the options?
Me: Cinnamon rolls and chili?
DS: Sounds great!
Me: Or there’s taco shells…we could have tacos and rice. Or we could have pork chops and fried apples.
DH: STOP! Don’t work so hard — chili & cinnamon rolls it is.
Me (thinking): Maybe I should check in the freezer and see what else there is…..

There I go again.

Overthinking.

What if there’s something else they’d prefer? If one acceptable dinner option is good, wouldn’t half a dozen other options be better?

According to my family…the answer is actually…No.

“Really?” I ask, struggling to believe them.

My guys assure me they don’t need — or want — so many choices, especially if the first thing I mention sounds good enough.

DS: Mom, chili’s fine.
Me: Are you sure?
DH: We’re positive.

I’m learning to remind myself there’s no need to fret over insignificant things or work so hard. I’ve been reminding myself that at times like this, one option is enough.

In life, there are plenty of big questions. Having one option for what we can eat for supper is fine. If it’s not someone’s favorite? Who cares! There will always be another opportunity to have that person’s favorite for supper some other night.

These days when I’m getting dressed and I start reaching for Outfit #2, I try to think of a friend that I’ve seen recently, and then I ask myself, “What was this person wearing the last time I saw her?”

I may be spectacularly unobservant, but I usually can’t remember. When I can’t decide what to wear in the morning, I remind myself that if I can’t remember what Karen was wearing last night….then what I’m wearing today probably doesn’t matter all that much either.

And truly, when I consider that my main goal in the morning is “don’t head off on the day’s activities buck naked”… well, it does sort of take the pressure off.

Because here’s the other thing I realized. If it’s something really important, say getting dressed for special event, I always figure that out way ahead of time anyway.

The same holds true of “what should we have for dinner?”

But things are getting better.

The other day I stood in the greeting card aisle looking for a sympathy card for a friend whose brother had died. I found myself rejecting each of the cards I looked at in turn.

And that’s when I caught myself.

WAIT A SECOND!

I looked at the card I held and honestly thought, “There’s nothing wrong with this card.”

Poof! I was done!

I went through the checkout and got to my next appointment without rushing around, all because I skipped the search for that illusive “perfect card” that might (or might not) have been out there.

And that’s the most important thing: the more I keep an eye on my tendency to overthink things, the easier it gets to identify that behavior pattern, and, to quote Barney Fife, “Nip It In The Bud! Nip It!”

Each time I stop the overthinking, I congratulate myself And remind myself to keep up the good work.

Oh, it’s still not perfect, this system I’ve devised, but it’s good….and best of all it’s getting better.

Filed Under: Gina Prosch Blog Tagged With: hmmm maybe I should do something else, overthinking, thinking

On Overthinking…and Squirrels

There are a couple of routes I usually take on my way home — one is a busy two-lane highway complete with crazy drivers passing in the face of oncoming traffic, riding my bumper, and swerving back into their lanes as they look up from their texting.

No surprise that the route I drive most often is one of two-lane country blacktops.

It’s the lazy way — the long way — and it gives me a chance to relax and enjoy a slower, winding drive as I head toward home.

The last few weeks the signs of autumn have set in, and I’ve noticed a definite uptick in the number of squirrels going about their business. They’re busy at work, hunting nuts and setting up their cache for winter.

If their efforts are forecasting the weather, then this winter is shaping up to be a hard one.

I thought about those squirrels just this morning as I came up to my office to work on my blog post.

Oft times, they’ve got nuts in their mouth as they scramble across the road.
They make it 3/4 of the way across, see the oncoming car, and lose their minds….scrambling back and forth and back and forth.

I was that squirrel today.

This morning, I started writing, but then about 3/4 of the way through the blog post, I changed my mind about where it was going and went back and started editing.

Then I changed my mind again.

I could have kept it up all day long.

But, since the post needs to be finished up before lunchtime, I even had a figurative CAR bearing down on me.

I refuse to be THAT SQUIRREL…the one who overthinks everything and ends up dead in the middle of the road.

I stopped thinking — stopped hemming and hawing — and hit the delete key.

Then I walked back to the edge of the road (or in the case back to blank sheet of paper) and started over. Right here. With this post.

For good measure, I’m moving my little squirrel friend in the photo above to a spot where I will walk past it on my way to my home office.

It will be my signal to Just Make Up Your Mind Already!

And  here’s to all the squirrels out there serving as our real-world reminders.

Every time you see one crossing the road, say to yourself, “Do Not Overthink!”

It’s not good for squirrels…and it’s not so good for people either.

 

Filed Under: Gina Prosch Blog Tagged With: inner squirrel, just make up your mind, overthinking

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