Ep. 123: Courage Casts - Rewiring the Overthinking Mind

In this episode of the Courage to Live Podcast, Josh talks about overthinking, something many high performers struggle with. Late at night, it’s easy for the mind to race through everything that could go wrong, the mistakes from yesterday, and the pressure of what tomorrow might bring. But what if we redirected that same energy toward the positive? Josh shares how shifting some of that mental focus toward gratitude, good experiences, and future possibilities can help break the cycle of constant negative thinking. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to the Courage to Live Podcast. My name is Josh Pitzko, and I'm a retired police captain with 24 years of experience out of Las Vegas. Currently, I travel the country and I teach people about courage, resilience, and leadership. Today's podcast, I want to talk about something that many of us do. I know I have had a tendency to do this so many times in my life. It's overthinking. And what does that look like? What does it look like for you? I'll tell you what it looks like for me is usually it's at night and my mind will start racing about 100 things I have to do the next day, things I didn't do the day before. Um, all the things that could go wrong. Uh, and you know, having all these feelers out for the business, or when I was a cop, all the different projects I had, or when I was a captain, I had people working 24-7 that worked for me, and always waiting for that phone to go off and something bad to happen, like an officer-involved shooting, or somebody get killed, or you know, I was just always my brain was always on. And as I think about that, and I think about overthinking, how often is this overthinking negative? And what does that negative thinking, what impact does it have on just your mental health, your physical health, your well-being, your ability to experience joy in the moment? Um, it really just had such an impact on me. And I think it was aging me. I have a lot of gray hair, as you can see if you're watching this on YouTube. Uh that that gray hair, just it's that stress is I wear it, I've worn it on my face. It affects not just your mental health. And it really got me thinking, what if I also overthought on the good things that happened? The good things that happened that day, the things that possibly could happen in the business or in my life, like all the different um experiences that you know I want to have in my life and you know what the future holds, and really trying to balance, because I don't think I'll ever not overthink because that's just my personality, uh, rooted in wanting to be perfect and the other podcasts that I've done. Uh, but also why not also focus on the positive? So now I'll lay in bed and I'll try and think about the good things that are in my future and what that looks like. Um, the good things that happened during that day, the positive experiences, positive interactions I had with my family, and really thinking about not just the negative, not just the things that can go wrong. Because that's easy, right? You know, we're kind of built for survival and what's that next day look like and that survival thinking. But we live in a time when there's so many positive things going on, too. And, you know, I I feel like I have a roof over my head and food and my bills are paid and all of that. So I truly do have so much to be thankful for and positive of. So why not why not overthink about the future in a positive way and think about what could happen that's good. Appreciate you listening today. Um, if you like the podcast, please share it with a friend, subscribe, leave a review, and I really appreciate you spending time with me today.