6 Ways to Break Free from Analysis Paralysis: Learn how to overcome choice paralysis
Does trying to decide which path to choose send you into a frenzy of overwhelm? This article will help you learn how to overcome your analysis paralysis so you can optimize your decision-making process and make more fulfilling choices.
Making decisions used to feel like the world’s hardest thing for me. From the relatively inconsequential (pasta or salad for dinner?) to life-altering (should I have kids or not?), my former self would all too often agonize, deliberate, and flip flop back and forth when faced with a decision.
I wouldn’t have characterized myself as The World’s Most Indecisive; that is, I wasn’t necessarily losing sleep about the choices I faced. But I can also distinctly recall the angsty, anxious, and paralyzing feeling that decision-making often brought me and the questions that would run through my mind:
“What if I’m making the wrong choice?”
“Will I regret this decision in the future?”
“Is this really the best path for me?”
In this article, learn exactly what analysis paralysis is, six of the common reasons people face it, and specific advice on how to overcome each cause. By the end, you'll be better equipped to take on any decision or problem that comes your way without suffering deer-in-the-headlights syndrome.
What is analysis paralysis?
Analysis paralysis is what happens when we’re steeped in extreme indecision.
You become paralyzed from taking action or moving forward with a particular choice because you’re hung up on analyzing what feels like every single aspect of the decision that confronts you.
We can call it a byproduct of overthinking: your rational mind gets so immersed in the choice you’re trying to make, that you analyze the situation to the nth degree and delay taking action as a result.
6 common causes of analysis paralysis (and how to overcome them)
How do we get trapped in this sticky thought loop that happens when evaluating our decisions? Here are six of the most common pitfalls that can lead to an overanalysis of choices. Plus, find my favorite mindset tips for moving beyond analysis paralysis, so you can learn to make decisions with greater ease and confidence.
1.) You regard your choices in black and white terms
When you’re stuck in analysis paralysis, it’s often because you’re viewing making a decision in a very dichotomous way. You think that the right choice means choosing good (whereas all other choices are “bad”), and believe that only one path will leave you fulfilled (whereas if you get your decision wrong, you’ll be consequently unfulfilled).
When we view our decisions in black and white, we often also think there are a very limited number of ways in which we can act. For example, do you accept an invitation to speak at a local start-up that’s interested in your work or not?
The fact is, there are usually a huge array of nuances available when we make a decision. Maybe you say yes to the speaking gig, but are able to postpone it until next quarter when you have more time. Maybe you say no to the opportunity because you don’t enjoy public speaking but can still collaborate with this particular company in a different capacity.
When we open ourselves up to the nuances available when we decide, there’s an opportunity to not only break out of analysis paralysis but to find more joy in the path we choose.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #1
In reality, life is made up of shades of gray, and just because one decision’s outcomes may be good doesn’t mean all other choices would necessarily be bad. A question that I’ve personally found very freeing to ask when I’m stuck viewing my decisions in black and white terms is, “What if any of the choices I’m considering can lead to fulfillment?”
By opening yourself up to the possibility that there aren’t necessarily good or bad choices, just different ones, you can remove some weight from the situation and your fixation with getting the decision perfect.
Another helpful shift to employ is what Chip and Dan Heath refer to in their book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, as the “vanishing options test”. This tactic asks us to imagine that none of the choices we’re considering are available to us, and then to brainstorm what other options we might consider. This test helps us move out of dichotomous thinking and explore the nuances that exist in life — often resulting in a choice that encompasses even more of what we desire.
For example, if you find yourself endlessly deliberating about whether or not you should fire your very lucrative but pain-in-the-butt client, you can try this test and ask, “What else might I do if neither canning my client or keeping her were options?” Could you change your terms of engagement? Set better boundaries? Up your prices so you feel more adequately compensated? Replace your income with another project first?
2.) You want to get things “right” and/or avoid getting things “wrong”
I hear this from my coaching clients a lot: “I need to figure out what the right choice is.” This is coupled with a sense of immense pressure and deliberation as they try to determine what that right choice is. Sometimes it’s “right” by other people (i.e. will my family approve?) and other times it means that the “right” action will lead to a life of fulfillment, and the “wrong”, total despair. (Refer to point #1.)
The more you fall into this idea that there are blatantly right and wrong choices — and that determining what these are is solely your responsibility — the more you end up stuck in analysis paralysis. Naturally, we want to find the best choices for ourselves in life. But the notion that the “right” choice is behind an unmarked door and we only get one chance to discover it, only leads to agony and dissatisfaction.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #2
First off, if you’re stuck in this kind of perfectionistic, I’ve-gotta-get-this-right-at-all-costs thinking, ask yourself, How important is this decision? If the outcome will have little to no bearing on your future (i.e. what to serve your dinner guests or the outfit you’re planning to wear for an upcoming presentation), give yourself a reasonable time frame (say, 10 minutes) and then make a damn choice. No point in overthinking it.
On the other hand, if this decision and its outcome feel more weighty (i.e. Do I accept this big partnership opportunity? Should I start a podcast?), ask yourself which path aligns best with your overall objectives and the kind of future you’re creating.
For example, if you’re trying to build your audience and the partnership will connect you with a large group of your ideal clients, your answer may be yes. Conversely, if you’re looking to streamline your marketing efforts and are already hella booked with ideal clients, maybe launching a new podcast isn’t your best path.
Lastly, when making a decision, it can be helpful to remind yourself that there aren’t necessarily bad or good choices in life, just different ones. Any path you choose can be a valuable learning experience or potentially fulfilling — regardless of the outcome of this individual choice.
3.) You believe your decisions are irreversible or that outcomes are irreparable
In fairness, some choices are truly irreversible. Having children springs to mind, and I suppose tattoo removal technology is still subpar. But many choices in life are, in fact, reversible.
Decide business ownership isn’t for you? You can get another job. Realize you made a terrible mistake hiring your CFO? Fire ‘em. I’m being a bit flippant, yes, because I understand that in practice, realizing you’ve made the wrong choice can be a messy and painful situation to navigate. But most decisions are at the very least recoverable-from. You can end your bad marriage or realize an MBA wasn’t the best choice for you, and, ultimately, still find happiness, fulfillment, and success in life.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #3
We make choices in life and we learn from them. It’s a necessary part of the process. One of the ways we become clearer about what we do want, is through our exploration of different paths, experiences, and ideas. Are there ways we can mitigate the risk of making bad choices? Of course. But it also causes us to freeze in our decision-making tracks when we view each and every choice as oh-so-weighty and essential to our future happiness and success. The result? Unnecessary anxiety, wasted energy, and (potentially) a missed deadline.
The next time you find yourself thinking, “If I screw things up, there’s no turning back” — first, remind yourself that few choices are entirely irreparable. You might find it helpful to make a list of past choices you’ve made, that in hindsight, turned out to be poor ones. Then, beside each choice, write down:
a.) What you learned from this choice
b.) How it has played a role in shaping who you are today
Lastly, you may find it helpful to briefly explore how you could resolve things if the decision you’re making turns out to be the wrong one for you. This doesn’t mean spending an inordinate amount of time focusing on or planning for worst-case outcomes. But sometimes when we recognize that we do have options if things go sideways, it can be enough to spur us to action and get us out of analysis paralysis.
4.) You have a fear of missing out (FOMO)
Let’s face it: FOMO is a curse of our modern era. For those of us with plentiful opportunities and privilege — which likely includes you if you’re reading this post — there are a lot of things happening out there in the big wide world that we can be a part of. The business owners I coach worry that if they decide not to join the latest social media platform, they’ll miss out on income and new clients. That if they choose to change their niche they’ll lose all of the momentum they’ve been building.
When we view our choices in terms of all the things we might miss out on, we end up stuck between simultaneously wanting to do everything, and nothing.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #4
Here’s the cold hard truth: there are a million possible paths in life and you can’t pursue them all. (Sorry.) Think you want to do it all? I’m willing to argue you actually don’t. Doing everything means not excelling at anything. The pursuit of everything means not having any real richness or depth of experience because you’re so busy skimming the surface of life. Doing everything means never being truly present because you’re always focused on the next best thing.
When you realize that it’s impossible, at least in this lifetime, to experience all of the hundred thousand different ways life could look, you can get on with it and squeeze the most goodness and joy out of the path you’re on. This isn’t to say you shouldn't decide to change things. By all means, pursue what your heart desires. But also know you can’t do it all.
The German industrial designer, Dieter Rams, probably best encapsulates the advice I’d like to leave you with: less but better. While Rams touts the idea of “less but better” when it comes to product design, I’d encourage you to embrace a similar approach when navigating your choices in business and life. Focus on getting more fulfillment, impact, and joy from a fewer number of choices, rather than wishing you could say yes to everything.
5.)You’re tired of deciding
Did you know that it’s said we make an average of 35,000 decisions per day? It’s hard to even conceive of. From the smallest and most automatic (which side of the bed you got out of this morning) to the more substantial (do you hire that new team member?), our days are filled with choices of all shapes and sizes. Which dairy-free milk or cookies do you buy in the supermarket? Which of the 1,467 things on your to-do list do you do first? What about after that? Which departure date and time should you book for your upcoming flight?
There is a ton of research and data to suggest that one of the major downfalls of our era of choice is that we end up overwhelmed, and as psychologist Barry Schwartz argues in his book, The Paradox of Choice, ultimately robbed of satisfaction. “Having too many choices produces psychological distress, especially when combined with regret, concern about status, adaptation, social comparison, and perhaps most important, the desire to have the best of everything — to maximize.”
Furthermore, the constant barrage of choices that the privileged among us face, tires us out. "Decision fatigue" is a phenomenon coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, and refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by a person after a long session of decision-making. Put simply? Too many decisions makes you overthink and leaves you exhausted. It's too heavy of a cognitive load. No wonder we find ourselves in a state of analysis paralysis when making decisions.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #5
So how do we reduce decision-making exhaustion when we’ve got too many damn decisions to make? One of my personal favorites is pre-deciding, or automating certain choices. In effect, we want to make smaller, recurring decisions in advance, so that when we arrive at certain situations, we already know what to do and how we’ll act.
This solution might look like knowing that every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 am you get up and go to the gym. Or, perhaps, as Steve Jobs infamously did, you wear a kind of personal uniform (in Job’s case, a black turtleneck, jeans, and New Balance sneakers) so you don’t have to decide every day what you’re going to wear.
These might seem like insignificant examples, but the fact is, the many decisions made every day have a compounded, brain-draining effect. The theory is that if we can free up our minds from making multiple, smaller choices each day, it reserves our decision-making brainpower for larger, more significant decisions.
6.) You’re worried about other people’s opinions
Wouldn’t it be nice if you were the only person you needed to take into account while making decisions? Of course, life is a bit more complicated. Not only do certain choices require that we take others into consideration (“How will my kid’s education be impacted if we move countries?” “How will it impact my team if we stop offering this particular service?”) — we also have other people’s opinions and attitudes to contend with when we’re deciding.
As if trying to make a decision wasn’t hard enough on its own, having your mom/client/friend/partner tell you what they think you should do, throws a whole other level of complexity into the equation. Even if other people’s perspectives aren’t explicitly made known, you likely have a subtle (or not-so-subtle) soundtrack playing in the back of your mind posing questions and commentary like, “What will my peers think?” or “If I choose X I’ll piss so many people off.”
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS MINDSET SHIFT #6
I’m not going to tell you to entirely disregard how your choices affect others. But, in order to get in touch with what you want, it can be particularly helpful to imagine what you’d do if no one else’s opinion mattered.
If it helps, you can envision that you’re in a safe and protective bubble. Inside this bubble, you’re untouched by everyone else’s judgments, opinions, and potential repercussions — you name it. What would you do if the decision you’re grappling with could be made 100% on your terms? What’s the first thing that comes to mind, if you imagine that you could do what you want?
Now I want you to ask yourself, and be honest: why can’t I allow myself to do this?
Sometimes we’re legitimately hindered by other people’s influence and role in our choices. But often, that’s just fear talking, because we’re afraid we might ruffle feathers or go against what “everyone else” is doing.
I want you to remember that this is your life — and in many circumstances, it’s ultimately only you that has to live with your choices. Are you willing to accept long-term dissatisfaction because you’ve made a decision someone else might not approve of or like? Or, are you okay feeling some short-term discomfort choosing the hard choice — when in return, you’ll receive joy, fulfillment, and a life lived on your terms?
Gain clarity and overcome analysis paralysis
Considering the aforementioned challenges, it’s hardly a surprise that so many of us end up anxious, disconnected from, and confused about what we want in life. So what’s one of the biggest things that can help you make decisions more quickly, confidently, and in a way that feels aligned? Getting clear on your own desires and vision for your life.
You can think of mental clarity as a compass that can always help show you the way; when you’re clear on what you do and don’t want, it becomes much easier to know which opportunities to say yes to, and which are a no.
When you’re clear about your values and what matters most in your life, so many of the seemingly endless paths you find yourself staring down will immediately fade away. With greater clarity, you’ll learn to trust your gut like never before, and decisions will come with confidence and ease. No more asking everyone and their dog for their opinion and weigh-in because you already know what you want.
Ready to bust out of analysis paralysis so you can make decisions with greater ease and fulfillment? My 7-week online course, Get Clarity, will help you cut through your muddled thinking and constant deliberation, and connect with what it is that YOU want.