Episode 10: Action Over Answers: "How to Overcome Analysis Paralysis"

In this episode, we’re diving into the power of action over answers and how to OVERCOME ANALYSIS PARALYSIS. If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a cycle of overthinking, waiting for perfect clarity before making a move—this one’s for you.

We talk about what it means to walk by faith, not by sight, how clarity often comes after movement, and why progress doesn’t require perfection—just a small step in the right direction. 

#ActionOverAnswers. #NoMoreOverthinking. #SmallStepsBigFaith. #AnalysisParalysis #TakeTheStep #StartSomewhere  #SelfGrowth 

Faith in Action // Change in Motion

Transcript

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Well, hello everybody. Welcome back. Here we are hitting it wide open. Episode number 10. This one is titled Action Over Answers. And so we gonna see what we gonna find out today together. So I'll say welcome back to the Change Chasers podcast. And this podcast, y'all. It's not necessarily where we're kinda, we we're not sitting in the slow lane on this one, right? We got pedal to the metal, ready to drive and let's go with whatever is coming next. And so we're not sitting around and waiting on life to happen. We're gonna be chasing down the growth, the purpose, and divine transformation. And so with that said, I'm excited to hit you with another episode, a new one. My name is still Mandy, and I'm still trying to do this thing. So I hope that it is blessing you. I hope that the content that I've been creating has just making your day better. Some of it, maybe even as making your no, and just stop and think a little bit and for you to be able to. Embrace that mantra of growing as you are going as well. And so I truly believe that this is gonna be a pretty good episode. I'm, I'm excited about kind of where we're gonna go with this one, but I do believe that it's gonna. Kind of help us out. If you've ever felt like you have been stuck in the muck, in the middle of your mess, then hey, this one is gonna maybe help you as the cool kids say, slay the day. If you've ever been stuck though, in all seriousness, y'all, if you've ever been stalling or if you've ever been second guessing your next move, then I hope that this episode blesses you and it'll be a way to hopefully help you. And so with it, we're going to be talking about movement and. How do we move, right? How do we kind of take next steps when we don't have all the answers? I am the type of person that I like to know. I mean, I'm okay with most things. I can roll with it and be just cool as a cucumber and be like, okay, that's cool. That's awesome. But I just like to know, right? And so if you are a dear friend out there who knows me, you're shaking your head like, yep. She likes to know all my friend Mandy Cook is like that. She's like, oh girl, she hits me with the truth of maybe I shouldn't always have to know what's coming next. Right? And so if we're just being honest together though, I will say that clarity doesn't always come before movement and it's not always easy. But I do think that sometimes y'all, we've gotta be willing to walk it out. To work it out. And so here we go. Let's go ahead and kick off in with our content and our episode. Our hot take number one is getting out of analysis paralysis. I love that. Putting that together, analysis paralysis. And so I think that so many of us live stuck in our heads, y'all. Any other overthinkers over there? Raising your hand, air high 5 cents your way, right, that we may be overthinking over-planning, over-explaining. Maybe we're waiting for the perfect time, the perfect plan, or the perfect man, or even perfect peace to move y'all. That's called analysis paralysis. Here's the truth. Waiting for 100% certainty before acting is often just fear in disguise. And so when I think about fear, y'all, it will always find a reason to sit you down when God is trying to raise you up. And so when I think about a quote that attaches with that really well is I think perfection is a liar. Progress is the goal, right? We don't wanna get. Caught up whenever y'all we're just trying to grow as we're going, right? And we're like, man, I feel like I can do this and I am trying to do the next thing. But if we will allow fear to creep in, then like I said, I mean, it creates a reason to sit us down when God is trying to raise us up. One of my favorite things that I like to say to people is, I'm not calling you out. I'm calling you up, and so I hope in this episode that I'm calling you up as well and that we're going to be sharpened a bit and thinking about, okay, I'm, I'm gonna, I need to change a little bit here. There's some things that maybe even I need to put down so then I can pick up into the new level and the new divine assignments and the entrustment and the ways that I want to grow and be able to use as a Christian, I say. As a believer for the upbuilding of the kingdom, and if you're listening and you may not be a Christian, then maybe you've got personal goals that you can even apply these tangible experiences or ideas to, you know, how you're rolling out, like whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish, that whenever you go through and you're just trying to, absolutely 100%. Have progress, right? Because progress is the goal. So I got a little mini challenge mid episode here for you. I want to ask you to name one area where you've been paralyzed by the need to figure it all out. Now. I said just one, right? I mean, I feel like here in this mid episode, little mini challenge, that's easy, unfortunately, to stop and think about probably 3, 4, 5 things that. I mean, we have been paralyzed and we've just been detained. We've been held captive in our thoughts because we thought, oh, I gotta have this all figured out. And so I wanna say FYI, you aren't alone. You're not alone and enduring this. And so, even though it is kind of a challenge, whenever I was thinking about why this happens to us. Why do we overthink, right? Why do we get stuck in the muck in the middle of our mess? Like, why is it that we get held captive in our own thoughts? Why do we allow ourselves to have stinking thinking? Why do we, why do we get detained? Why do we not continue to easily move forward with progress? And so in with that, I'm thinking about why do we get caught up going 90 to nothing, right? A lot of us living life that way, and I'm not talking about pedal to the metal out on the interstate, you know, hauling it out 90. If so, then you're gonna probably get a woo woo woo. A little bit of a, a meeting, a new police officer kind of thing. But like that expression of going 90 to nothing speed in life, right? Why do we over plan? Then that leads me to why do we overcompensate? Why do we oversaturate? Why do we overestimate A, a, right? I mean, all of the over and you fill in the blank things, right? Have you ever noticed that when life gets stressful, we all become professional overachievers? And I'm not actually really making that point in a productive way, but I am saying. In an overthinking, overdoing over it, but still going kind of way. Right. Y'all, I'll say this for me personally, if overthinking was an Olympic sport, your girl here would be bringing home the gold medal. I mean, I unfortunately would probably every day, every month, every week, every year. Maybe you are the same, you know, maybe any. Fellow over thinkers, gold medalist in the making here. Right. And I'll say that. I mean, gosh, I'm even an over estimator when it comes to trying to. Simple little things. Task such as earlier today I got groceries, bringing groceries in the house. I just have to ask, is anybody else also an over estimator in your two hands, your two thumbs and your eight fingers? Because I am like I'm an over estimator and how much strength and what's the ability for my hands, my fingers, my thumbs, like for them all to work together to carry 17 bags in the door at once. I. I don't know why I do this. Like anybody else the same, like, yeah, I'm a pro champion bag carrier, you know, like, I don't know. Why do we do that? Not real sure, but if you're the same, then you're my people. Thanks. I'm grateful that I'm not the only 17 bag, one tripper kind of getting in the door, but in all honesty, I like, I really wonder, I'm like really? Have no idea. Like why not? Sure. I'm an over estimator. I guess it's just how I roll. And so I'm guessing that you probably, some of you're feeling me on that and I'm not alone on it. so thinking about that, I think, you know, a lot of times when I'm thinking about, I'm making the points of all of the over words, then, then I also throw in there for a now modern day word as extra. So I say that I, maybe there's a little bit of extra in most of us. And so not only do we overthink. We overestimate, then I'll say, whew, y'all. Lot of mercy. I mean, whew. God is good and he is faithful. But sometimes I over commit Anybody else? Mm-hmm. Yep. I bet I got a steering wheel. Tap, tap, tap for driving down the road. Yep. We over commit, right? We allow our schedules to get crazy wild. Active. I mean, we're going here, going there, all the things, all the days for all the people. Some days I overwork. Maybe you do too. I'll say that. Even some days my calendar needs a calendar. I mean, can you relate? We are constantly going and doing, and the expression in the south here is burning the midnight oil. And so when I think about. The everyday hustle and bustle that so many of us actively have and that we have such full calendars and full agendas and plans and expectations for our day. Y'all, I, I can't help but overanalyze y'all picking up what I'm putting down on the over word, adding that in, but in all seriousness, I can't help but overanalyze and ponder on why our minds are so full. And so in preparation for this episode, I, I did a little bit of research and y'all, I was absolutely flabbergasted to find out that our ancestors made around 2,500 decisions per day. Now, when I first showed that, I thought, well, that's a pretty good amount of decisions a day, 2,500, 2,500. All right? Okay. But guess how many the average modern day person makes now in present day? 35,000. Y'all in a normal day for us, 35,000 is the average. Now what about all of us over doers, over thinkers, over schedulers, y'all, it's gotta be even more than 35,000. I mean, isn't that crazy though? it is absolutely just crazy bananas. I mean, it's like 1400% more. And just like daily decision making. So no wonder we have fatigue, right? Mental exhaustion. I do think that it is something really real. And so decision fatigue, I think that's something else that we don't always even stop and process and think about because we're always burning and growing and doing and doing, next thing, right? And so whenever, whenever, I'm just thinking about. Decision making. I just think, gosh, y'all, it's required to survive. It's required to thrive. That was one of our recent episodes of how do we thrive, not just survive, but I will say this, that with that high of a percentage and thinking about 35,000, 1400% growth from 2,500, it's like, wow. Man, too bad. That is not the numbers on our investment account, right? Like, I mean, gimme a Yeah girl. That would be super fab tab. We could go to Europe. But, anyway, in thinking about our daily decisions, y'all, oh gosh. I think our daily decisions demand constant neurotransmitters in our brains firing away. And I don't know if you've really ever stopped and thought about that and I have a little bit'cause my degree's in psychology. But when I go in and I just think about our decisions, our day in and day out ways of coping and doing. And so, I mean, so many of us work full-time jobs. So many people are parents. Maybe you're a grandparent listening, maybe you're a college student, so whatever season of life it is, I mean, gosh, it, it, I mean, it takes decisions in knowing how to be a good friend, right? How to serve, how to help out in an organization in your community, or maybe in your church. And so even decisions are made in maintaining the upkeep of our homes. We make mindless decisions on that little device that fits right in our pockets, AKA, your cell phone. And so some of those decisions are, Hmm, which app am I going to open? Hmm, okay, which message am I gonna reply to? Which comment to read, which item to buy? What song should I listen to? Which email should I send? What show should I watch? And then y'all, before we know it, an hour or more of our evening is just gone. GONE gone. We just got caught up in what I call doom scrolling, and then bam, there it is. An hour of our lives is completely gone, that we'll never get back. And so as I was,preparing for this episode, I learned about glutamate. Glutamate y'all is a chemical in the brain that acts as a neurotransmitter, meaning it helps nerve cells communicate with each other. It plays a major role in brain functions like learning, memory and overthinking. So all of us over doers, overthinkers or over analyzers, there's a big time reason why we experience feelings of being overwhelmed. Anybody else ever been overwhelmed? I'm guessing I'm not flying solo on this. Our feelings of being overwhelmed or because of an increase in glutamate. And so in studying and preparing for this, I found out that too much glutamate in our brain though can lead to something called, now y'all, I know I'm country's cornbread. I'm gonna try to say this word and I may butcher it. So if you're listening and you're a medical professional, I know that I, I might have really jacked it up bad and so I'll say sorry in advance. But you can go Google this and you can look it up. You can study on your own. For all of you good people that are kind enough to listen to me on here, but it's XOC to talk toxicity. Whew. That's a$25 word right there. And I, again, a reminder, I'm country's cornbread. So again, so sorry. He's kind of embarrassing to not be able to say things. But I will tell you this. That, I'm guessing you picked up on the word toxic being in there, and so you can gather with your stellar smarts that toxic y'all, that ain't good. Right, so the increase in glutamate is where nerve cells become overexcited and damaged, resulting in the increase of negative issues such as. Anxiety. Restlessness. Insomnia. Which means having poor sleep. Migraines, headaches, brain fog, trouble concentrating. Listening. Y'all, I hope that you aren't going well. Snap, crackle, pop. I've had all those symptoms or issues at those last week, or Adam yesterday, and hope I'm not having'em tomorrow. Right? I mean, real talk though, that too much glutamate can overstimulate our brains. And so with sharing this information, I'll say that I know that I'm not a doctor. You know that I'm not a doctor, so we got that clear, right? That, you know that I'm, I'm not intending to dish out any medical advice, but I will say that common sense tells me that y'all, I need to be on mission to lower my glutamate levels. And maybe you do too. I think that the fastest way that I can think of in being able to accomplish this is by, you might not like me a whole lot for what I'm about to say, but detaching from our cell phones. And so, you know, coming at you with that statement, I'm not intending to throw shade. The good Lord above knows I need some help detaching from my celly telly, right? That's what I call my cell phone. But y'all. In making this point, I really, I'm just, I'm being totally honest and transparent. I need to detach, but I think we all need to detach from our cell phones. I don't know about you, but if you've ever been to a restaurant and you just look out at the tables around you and start counting like how many people are on their phones instead of being present with the people at their table, I mean, it's just really crazy wild. I've done it before and I always count double digits. And so, in any given restaurant, pretty much somebody at every table has their phones out. And so again, not throwing shade, I'm just, I'm just real talking, right. And just thinking about how it would be really beneficial for us to not be on our cell phones more. And with thinking of this, I'm reminded about some content that I used to teach to some of our local high school health classes. And it was about the teen brain and how the influence of media affects the teen brain and the development of, just all the brain neuro transmitters and, chemicals and I, I'm just, all the things. It was absolutely fascinating content. I really enjoyed teaching all of that. And so media's obviously not just social media. I mean, it's the influence of music, it's the influence of movies. it's so many different things, we have so many things that oversaturate our mind and our ears and our eyes and all of the things. And so thinking about that content though, one of the exercises that I would have students do. Was that I would have them go to the settings on their iPhone. And so you may wanna do this as well as you listen after the podcast, but they would go to their settings on their iPhone, and then they would click on screen time, and then I would have them raise their hand if they had more than eight hours of screen time showing that they on average spend on their phone a day. And so then I would increase, keep your hand up if you have 10 hours a day. Okay, 12 hours a day. 14 hours a day and y'all, I remember it, it would blow your mind too. Most students average 10 to 12 hours a day. Your minimum students were, it was very rare to have anybody that had been on their phone less than a couple hours a day, and so I. I do remember this one young lady though, that she averaged 23 hours a day on her phone, 23 hours y'all, 24 hours in a day, like what in the world? And I said, well, what'd you do for that one hour? And she was like, oh, I can't have my phone in the shower. So anyway, she literally never put her phone down. She said that she would have her phone playing music or she would be on YouTube while she slept. And so most everyone in the class though. Would, be crazy numbers on their phone too. But one of the other things that I would have'em do, we would do pickups. And so what that means is you can also find that in the settings of your phone of how many times a day do you pick up your phone. And that might be something that you also might wanna go check, but. Most everyone in the class would have 90 plus pickups on their phone stats, and that meant that they had picked their phone up for whatever reason and looked at the screen 90 times or more. Now, this absolutely floored me because some of the classes I taught would barely, it would be barely be 9:00 AM and that was their active stats. And so I just shared this to say that y'all. I need to do better. I need to lower my screen time. And maybe you, maybe you do too. I think that it's a great investment. I really do. And maybe I've never thought about it that way, but I do, and it just kind of came outta my mouth, so I'm like, Hmm, yeah, that sounds pretty good. But. It's a great investment in ourselves of being change chasers, right? With the whole mantra of growing as we're going. Then challenging ourselves to stop doom scrolling, or maybe even add app limits, helping us to create limits on how long we're allowing ourselves to. Beyond Facebookers. I like to call it the Book of Face or Instagram, TikTok on x YouTube, Snapchat, scrolling and watching those reels. You know, all of the things. I mean, you fill in your app addiction, I mean, most used one. Um, I am shooting you straight and saying that. I get it. We don't want to label anything an addiction, do we? And so. It might be though y'all, we may be addicted to certain apps and so I don't know if that's you and that's me, but I am gonna say that I'm gonna figure out what my goals are on this and, and hey, maybe I'll report back on a future episode and kind of share like whatever my growth is and thinking through that of, Hey, what do I need to give up so that I can grow? More. Right. Well we gotta give up to grow up I guess would be a good little zinger line on that. But one thing for sure is that I wanna do better and I need to do better. And so I'll say, Hey, wish me luck'cause I'm also sending you good luck and some Atta boys and atta girls right back at you as maybe you also are going to seek to lower your glutamate levels. And get better sleep and to feel less overwhelmed. And so with that thought, it leads me to hot take number two. Being a woman of faith, I'll say that I lean towards faith led decision making. And so the word tells us in two Corinthians chapter five, verse seven, that for we walk by faith, not by sight. Love that verse. It's a popular verse if you're a Christian. And so we walk by faith, not by sight. And so that means that you're not called to have the full map, right? Just the next step. And I know that's not always easy, but experience has proven that putting this process into action, it works. And so thinking about faith led decision making, it doesn't necessarily mean being reckless, I don't think. I mean, I think that it, it means being responsive. It means being responsible. I think that it's, uh, about checking in with Holy Spirit and aligning with God's voice and then taking the step that. He's highlighting maybe, I guess that'd be a good way to put it, is that, you know, kind of like the next step that God is highlighting, even if it doesn't make sense, because sometimes things just don't make sense to us. Right. I know that it's, um, not always easy to rock out that mindset, but I do know that, that it's worth it. I mean, I've lived through so many things that it was so worth it with allowing God to be the one to lead. And so when I think about making decisions or, or even if, even just trying to do better in one decision at a time, right? Leads me to thinking about having one step at a time. Then the good thing about giving ourselves permission to kind of have one decision, one step at a time, that I think that it'll keep us from being bamboozled. I love that word. Anybody else like, that's such a good word, bamboozled. And so my next two words I wanna add on this is that if we can act with the one step. One decision at a time, give ourself permission so that then keeps us from being bamboozled by analysis paralysis. That's good, right? Ain't nobody wanting to be bamboozled by analysis paralysis. I know country is cornbread here. And so anyway, I. In all seriousness, when I think about my intrusive analysis paralysis thoughts that y'all, they've, they've gotten me before. I mean, I have, it's had me feeling so stuck sometimes, and I before I could even, you know, currently be kind of in the present. It's like I'm, I'm living in the past and I don't know if anybody else has that. And so what I think about. Some decisions that I've even been, and I'm kind of making light and kind of making fun, I guess, say, of myself, but you may also relate and might be like, oh, yeah, I, I connect with that one. Is that y'all, I've lived my life in a way before that. I've made a decision to think about it some more. You know, we make decisions like, Hmm, my decision is to just keep thinking about it some more. Or why do today what we can overthink for the next, Hmm, six months? Or maybe you might be like me and you might also be rocking a PhD in sharing the pros and cons. But then you still can't decide, or maybe we're not indecisive, that maybe we are just committed to exploring every possible outcome of every possible option forever. I don't know. But in all seriousness, y'all, I will say that when I stop and I think about what it is that makes us have analysis paralysis, I believe that we've all experienced fear of failure. We've all experienced. Perfectionism, different levels, right? But I think we've also all experienced a lack of confidence, and we've all experienced external pressure. We've all experienced overthinking. And so as a result, I think that we can sometimes find ourselves feeling stuck. Oftentimes, I think that we can get ourselves hyped up on a lot of what's coming next. Thoughts, right? I mean that, that we don't always give ourselves the gift of the present. And so in realizing that I, I find some much needed comfort in this quote that I wanted to throw in on this episode. It truly is very reassuring to me, and so I hope in sharing it, it will be reassuring to you as well. It says, obedience is your responsibility. The outcome is his. And so, okay, noted. Got it. Right. So the outcome is God, the fathers, but our obedience is our responsibility. All right friends, we're gonna head on over for hot. Take number three, and this one is Clarity comes After Movement. So here's the wild part. You often won't get full clarity until you start walking. It's kind of like you ever walked in like the fog in a early morning and, and it's like as you walk, it's almost kinda like the, the fog lifts anybody else ever. I mean, if you live in a big city, you might not experience fog in the same way that we do. in, more rural areas. And so I live in the, north Georgia mountains and sometimes fog just kind of comes and it dissipates down low in the ground and then over time it lifts. And so just kind of making the point of thinking about when you're in the middle of it, you can't see as far out right. It's, man, but when that fog lifts, then it's really awesome because then you can walk and see. I. Without the uncertainty. And so just kind of making the point of thinking that we gotta be active in action. we gotta be willing to have the courage to take the next step. Or for some of us, it might even be the first step. And so in thinking of a biblical character that took the first step, took the next step was. Under the directive of Father God, it was Abraham, and so we find in Genesis chapter 12 that God told him, go to a land, I will show you. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. Now what? I mean he says, go and then I'll show. God told Abraham that. And how cool is it? Is that Abraham? He did go in obedience, which is awesome, and it ended up working out. In his favor. I know that there was some hardship along the way, but you know, thinking about God saying, go, and then I'll show you. Go and then I'll show. And so thinking about that being a kind of, in a sense of like a faith blueprint for us to also draw some strength from, right? Is that movement activates direction. Obedience though unlocks clarity and so. I don't know, maybe that'll hit you wherever it's supposed to. Maybe right between the ears, and it can be real life application. Right? But I'm gonna say it again. That movement activates direction. Our obedience unlocks clarity. A recent quote that I read, it says, God rarely gives the blueprint. He gives a word. I don't know about anybody else, but maybe you're like me and you want a full color print, like full color print, connect the dots, like right. I want step by step directions. And I'm also, you know, I. Saying Yes, please. And, and there might be some of you on the other side, you're nodding your head like, yes, please sign me up. I want to know all the details, all the things, what time. And so I trust that I'm not alone in this way of thinking. And so with that, I wanna offer you and I both, some encouragement of thinking about that y'all, we might not know what's next, but we know what's now. And so kind of giving ourselves permission to start there, move anyway. You're not lost, you're learning. Or as us change, chasers mantra says we're growing as we're going. And so I hope that that kind of encourages you to just allow yourself maybe even to hit pause. Kind of slow down a little bit. Instead of having a 90 to nothing foot race, mad dash, going here, going there where your calendar needs a calendar that, Hey, you know what? Maybe you need to allow yourself the permission to wait in into having a little bit more progress so that you do not, unfortunately get caught up with analysis paralysis, and so. We're gonna close this episode out now. Hopefully I haven't been mouth of the south for too terribly long for you guys today. I wanna recap a few takeaways that I hope that you'll pull down. Take, stick it in your pocket and carry it with you. Stop waiting on perfect progress. Starts with small steps, progress over perfection, listen to the Holy Spirit, not your fears and movement and clarity will catch up with you. So now in our C3 time, our call to action, our change chasers challenge for this week, I wanna challenge you to take one bold step toward that thing. Whatever that thing is, that thing that you've been sitting on, I wanna say apply for it, start it, send it, say it. And when you do, hey, let me know. Tag me, message me. Let me know what doors God begins to open. Because when you decide to move and when you decide to do the next thing, y'all, it might just become your best thing, or it may even be the thing that changes everything. Until next time, I hope that you will keep chasing change for what you hope for your future. But don't forget that we walk by faith, not by sight. So let's not let ourselves be bamboozled by that old stinking analysis paralysis. You don't need all the answers to take action. You just need enough faith to take that first step. So with that said, I'm cheering you on. Let's go. Mighty, change chaser. Until next time, let's keep chasing change and living with purpose. Bye sweet friends.