Jasmine Star (00:00:00) - Ask yourself, Will this decision matter in ten minutes, ten months or ten years? Now, this helps you put things in perspective and you stop sweating the small stuff. I spend most of my time on what matters in ten months, and then in ten years, I simply let go of things that don't matter in ten minutes. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show, a place where we discuss business mindset and today, getting the heck out of your own head and into action. All right, I want to take you back. It was 2009, 2010, and I was invited to be a keynote speaker at an event called WPP. This is for Wedding Portrait Photographers International, and I have to tell you, it was one of, if not the largest convention for photographers videographers in the world. It happened in Las Vegas, Nevada, and they had rented MGM, like the entire conference center at MGM. Now, normally this conference, they have breakout rooms where keynote speakers will go into large ballrooms. However, this was the first and I think only time they had rented the MGM arena.

Jasmine Star (00:01:12) - There were 10,000 photographers in that arena. This was also like as I'm walking behind stage, you see like photos of Christina Aguilera, U2, other huge performers that have performed at the MGM arena. And there I am, like walking behind stage. And when they first meet that person, like when they first made the offer, I was like, I want to back down. Like, there's no way I could speak at MGM arena. There's no way I could speak to 10,000 people. Now, at this point in time, I wouldn't even consider myself like a speaker. I was a photographer who liked helping and teaching other people, but 10,000 photographers in an arena. That was a totally different thing. But I chose fearful action instead of safe in action. And I have to tell you, that presentation, it catapulted my speaking career and my classification as a leader in the photo world. I will never forget being in the MGM arena. Finishing the presentation, walking off stage and all I felt was. Was that okay? Like, all I asked myself was, did it land? And I had this idea that after a presentation, I don't know, like when people speak in front of 10,000 people, I don't know.

Jasmine Star (00:02:31) - I thought to myself, I actually didn't think to myself what would actually happen behind stage. So it was myself, JD and a security guard and he walked us out the side. And so we exited out a door, a nondescript door in Las Vegas. There we were, walking at the MGM food court, and then JD and I walked into. I'll never forget it was emeralds. It was like an Emerald Lagasse restaurant. We walked right in. We sat down at a table of two and JD said, so how did it feel speaking at MGM arena? I have to tell you, that was the first time that I had said, I am so happy I took fearful action instead of safe in action. So in this episode, you're going to learn five different ways analysis paralysis can show up and how to overcome it in five. Simple and I mean simple strategies. And then you're also going to get a framework started with bigger picture projects that I like to call the toddler framework. Oh, and don't worry, you're going to see why I call it that.

Jasmine Star (00:03:31) - I am a mother of a toddler, so I feel pretty good about it. And you're gonna find yourself using or you're gonna find yourself using that framework all the time for just about any situation, because it's so dang simple. And it's effective when you need to start a big project, but you're feeling hesitant. So before we get into action, let's start with understanding analysis paralysis, because this is like the enemy of action. And it shows up in five main ways, which was what we're going to talk about. And just in case you're wondering, analysis paralysis hits about every entrepreneur, artist and creator. You're not alone. In fact, I created a real recently about Leonardo da Vinci. Like the Renaissance man, he was a painter, a sculptor, an inventor, a scientist, and he's still today considered a legendary genius. But here's the thing da Vinci was also notorious for leaving projects unfinished. Why? He struggled with a classic case of analysis paralysis, which was fueled by wait for it perfectionism.

Jasmine Star (00:04:29) - He'd spend years meticulously planning and researching, and a lot of times he'd abandon these projects before completing them. Okay, so let's pause. Do you know the feeling of abandoning a project before finishing it? Well, then you're in good company. You and Da Vinci come from the same ilk, you know. Mona Lisa, smile. That famous painting. Well, some say he spent a decade on that painting alone, y'all. Over ten years. And yes, it's a masterpiece. But his unfinished projects mean that the world will never be able to experience his full vision, what he could have fully stepped into. Now, I'm sure some of those unfinished projects, they could have been just as groundbreaking if he had just finished them. So what can we learn from Da Vinci struggles? Even the most talented people can get stuck in a perfectionist trap. Progress is way more important than perfection. Don't let the fear of making decisions hold you back from taking action and creating something truly extraordinary. And here's a side note.

Jasmine Star (00:05:32) - Sawhill, Bloom, Jen Gottlieb, and I recorded an episode about this exact concept and getting into action. It's titled Change Your Life in one year. I'm going to link it in the show notes in case you want to go back and listen to that. If you're ready to be like, I wanted to take action and I want to jump in and write about now. Okay, so back to this analysis paralysis is basically when you're overthinking to the extent of avoidance. It looks kind of be it's going to be in your ear and it's going to be telling you research until you're blue in the face. And then it convinces you that perfection is the one and only option when that's simply not true. Here are five ways analysis paralysis shows up so that you start noticing it and stopping it. Starting with number one planning purgatory. This is where you find yourself stuck in endless cycles of brainstorming, endless cycles of strategizing without taking concrete actions to implement your plans. Secondly, we have fear of failure. This is when the thought of putting yourself out there potentially keeps you frozen in place.

Jasmine Star (00:06:30) - Third, indecision aversion. This is the fear of making the wrong decision, and this can lead to analysis paralysis as you try to predict every possible outcome and then weigh them all before committing to any action at all, resulting in inaction. Fourth is information overload. This is when you get bogged down by the sheer volume of data, when we really only need a fraction if any, of that information before taking action. Action will lead you to the data that you need. And fifth, perfection paralysis. This is being obsessed with something, being looking and seeming flawless to the extent that it will prevent you from ever releasing it out to the public at all. Now let's do a couple of examples. So we'll do just two, so you can move into strategies that will get you into action. So here's an example of planning predatory. Let's say you have a great idea for an app, but you spend so much time researching the competition and tweaking features that by the time you launch, there are so many more similar options out there than would have been if you were to launch it sooner.

Jasmine Star (00:07:34) - And even though, hey, it's still a great app and there's still a lot of room for you to, you could have gotten a lot more attention and traction in sales if you had launched it earlier, and even worse, you would have made mistakes and learned necessary lessons sooner, and that would have made you further along in your career. All right, let's try a different example. Maybe you want to revamp your marketing strategy, but you get stuck comparing platforms, reading endless articles, and never actually implementing anything new. So you stay stuck in neutral, which is no bueno. Okay, this type of analysis paralysis is information overload with a heaping side of planning purgatory, right? So I want us to stop and consider what this actually means, that you are doing a great job with research. Bravo. You're doing a great job looking at all the ways that you could do something better. Great job. But if those things are actually stopping you or slowing you from taking action, I would say, hey, that is a bit of analysis paralysis and we need to pause this now.

Jasmine Star (00:08:41) - I went over these because once you're aware of these different types of analysis paralysis, you can identify it and then use one of these strategies that we're about to go over to get the heck out of it. So here's the key takeaway before we move on to the strategies to overcome this. This is the key takeaway. This is the one thing I want you to know. Analysis paralysis doesn't just cripple business growth, but it can make you distrust yourself. So what do you do about this? Okay, here are five strategies that I think are going to help you take action when it comes to when you're feeling this way. So let me name them each for you. And then we're going to dive into each one. You know how we do here on the show. We do the frameworks okay. Giving yourself restraints. The five second rule creating a bias towards action. The Pareto principle okay. I want us to pause, and then I want us to actually say, I'm ready. Like, I don't care where you're listening right now.

Jasmine Star (00:09:37) - You can be at the gym, just whisper it in your headphones. People think that you're singing along. I'm ready. If you're driving, say it out loud in the car. I'm ready if you're cooking in the kitchen, if you're in line waiting. Just like I'm ready. I'm ready to get out of analysis paralysis as quickly as possible. Say it with me. Three. Two. One. I'm ready. Now. If you did not say that you're ready to get out of analysis paralysis, you could just stop listening right here. Legitimately. This whole episode is about taking action. So if you don't take action at the end of the episode, I'm going to say something that might offend you. Okay? I don't know how bad you want it. If you prefer to stay stuck in a place of analysis paralysis, there is somebody out there who is less qualified, less educated, with less money who's going to win because action is the indicator of success. Oh, okay. So if we want to get out as quickly as possible, let's dive in.

Jasmine Star (00:10:28) - Number one, give yourself restraints. There's a strategy that's coined by an incredible entrepreneur and author by the name of Tim Ferriss. And he called it the power of Constraints. This is when you intentionally limit the number of options available to you, so that when you're faced with the decision, instead of trying to consider every possible choice, you impose constraints such as deadlines, budget restrictions, or other specific things. Okay, now listen, I know that it sounds counterintuitive, but by narrowing your options, you can reduce that what they call a cognitive overload. When your brain is going like haywire, you reduce your cognitive workload and decision making becomes easier for you to take action. So here's an example. Okay, so we asked ourselves on the team should we host an in-person event. So we set up restraints to help us determine the best answer we made intentionally. Like we intentionally made the process harder. Why? So that it could help us make a decision easier. So we were deciding should we host an in-person event? Now I'm going to go on a side note, I want and I wanted to host an in-person event.

Jasmine Star (00:11:41) - I was so excited to do an in-person event. I'm ready for it, but just because I want it and I'm ready, I am not sure if the market is ready for the way that I wanted to do it. Like, oh, you think you ready? Prepare your heart. Okay, so what we decided to do to ensure we were making a good business decision and not an emotional. That sounds fun decision. We gave ourself restraints. Number one, it had to be in June. I don't need to explain why the other reasons, but I'm just saying we knew according to our content and revenue calendar, it had to be in June. Number two, we had to profit at least six figures, or else we wouldn't do it because we could do other things that profited more. Three we had to get proof of investment to a small group of people before making the offer public. We can dive into that really quickly. We sent test and saying, are you interested in coming? And in order for somebody to even be considered to buying a ticket, they had to put down $1,000 deposit.

Jasmine Star (00:12:37) - Yeah, that was the constraint. Number four, we had to be able to create and complete the event content in May. That was like we were giving ourselves these very short time frames, like everything had to be done in Locked In by me and five. It had to be something people said they wanted. Specifically from Jasmine Star. I know I just referred to myself in third person, but I'm actually looking at this as a business decision. Like, I know it's weird, we're just going to roll with it, but we often look at projects and we're like, is this a Jasmine Star project? Is this is a social curator project. I'm involved in other businesses and projects, and so we identify them as their name. We had to say somebody is not looking for a live event. They're looking for a live event with Jasmine Star. Those are very different. And so those five constraints empowered us to make a decision. And guess what? Given those constraints, we decided to say, you know what, we don't think it's June.

Jasmine Star (00:13:36) - We think it's later this year. That is how we got to the decision quickly. All right. Let's get into strategy number two for getting out of analysis paralysis. I know you're like I need a good breath. Take that breath right now because we're diving in to the five second rule now I love Mel Robbins. I can just love her. She's just the best. If you are not familiar with her podcast or show, she's incredible and she is that person in real life as she is on her show, she is a no nonsense, let's take action. She coined this phrase, the five second rule. The five second rule is a very simple technique to overcome procrastination and then take action. The five second rule suggests that when you feel the urge to act on a goal or make a decision, you count down from five and then take physical action. Five, four, three, two, one I get out of bed five, four, 321. I make the decision if I'm vesting or not.

Jasmine Star (00:14:33) - Ooh, I know it's crazy. It's like you give yourself that habit. So by doing this, you interrupt the habit loop of overthinking and hesitation, and then you empower yourself to move forward regardless of feelings of fear, regardless of those feelings of uncertainty, this strategy helps overcome and also prevent analysis paralysis. Why? It's getting you to take immediate action before the doubts and the hesitations totally take over. Ooh that's good. Let's go. Now strategy number three is choosing to create a bias towards action. I'm going to say that a little slower a bias towards action if. You've been listening to this podcast for more than two episodes. You know that I am about action, even if it's flawed. Even if somebody says it's wrong, even if somebody says it's imperfect. I just come from the school of belief, and my history has proven that I will never be the smartest. I will never be the most qualified. I will never be the richest in any particular room. But I am very quick to take action.

Jasmine Star (00:15:33) - And the action guides me to the thing that I am supposed to do. And on a side note, if you are the smartest and the richest and the most qualified in the room, you're in the wrong room. That's a different episode coming up on another episode of the show. However, if we talk about a bias towards action, this is intentionally training yourself to choose action instead of waiting for the perfect information, the perfect timing, the perfect solution. Now I say the word train in air quotes because that's all this is, is like you're in a daily mindset bootcamp. You have to train yourself to take action. Now I get it. At first it's scary and you're like, maybe I make a mistake. You're not. The biggest mistake you can take is not taking action. Action leads to the next step. Not thinking action. Messy action. Scrappy action. Scary action, embarrassing action, doubtful action, unrefined action. It is action, but you have to choose it. It action will never choose you, honey.

Jasmine Star (00:16:30) - You will like to stay safe. I will tell you right now if you think you're in your comfort zone, I'm telling you, you're in a death trap. Because if you're comfortable, it means you're not growing. And if you're not growing, honey, you're fading. You're falling into those things that you think are keeping you safe, which are actually just keeping you stuck. So if you feel stuck, the idea isn't to just stay stuck and think of your way out. The idea is to choose a different action every day until you find something that gets you from the couch into the white House. Okay, maybe not the okay, maybe not the white House. I got a little carried away, but it'll get you off the couch. And that is step one. Okay, so how do we talk about choosing? Well, you train yourself every day with tiny bits of action. When you adopt this mindset, you're going to understand it. It's okay to make mistakes and learn from them along the way.

Jasmine Star (00:17:21) - That is normal. If you don't normalize that. Your biggest icons and leaders and favorite people out in the business world, the sports world, the entertainment world, if you don't accept that making mistakes is the way you grow, you're going to feel like it only happens to you and then you become a victim. We ain't got time for victimhood, honey. We only have time for victory. This is where am I coming up with this stuff right now? I have no idea. People are like, you just have had too much coffee. You know what? Or have you not had enough? Okay, I have to tell you, by choosing action, it's helped me, gained momentum and confidence. And it will do the same for you. Now strategy number four is the ten, ten, ten rule. And this was created by Susie Welch. And it's going to help you avoid getting bogged down by minor details. It's simple. Y'all ask yourself Will this decision matter in ten minutes, ten months or ten years? Now this helps you put things in perspective and you stop sweating the small stuff.

Jasmine Star (00:18:15) - I spend most of my time on what matters in ten months, and then in ten years, I simply let go of things that don't matter in ten minutes. Now, if I don't respond to your text message, I'm sorry, I truly, but I'm focused on the future. If I don't respond about like where we should go to dinner, I'm sorry. I'm really focused on the future. If I don't know what reality show you're referring to, I'm sorry, but it's not going to matter in ten minutes. Now, I debated actually talking about this because it could read people the wrong way. I know, but I am working on cutting out paralysis. I'm not going to let a ten minute factor or decision affect where I am in ten years. And this requires sacrifice, and this is how I'm managing it for right now. I might change it in the future, but right now I'm just not going to prioritize or get convoluted or even stop. If the decision or idea or response doesn't really matter in ten minutes.

Jasmine Star (00:19:16) - Okay, and I know I should add a caveat. This drives my husband crazy because he says, where do you want to go for dinner? I was like, I don't know. I do not have a brain cell to tell you where I want to go for dinner, what I want to make for dinner, what I want to eat for dinner. If there is a plate of food and it is somewhat warm in front of me, I think we're going to be okay. That drives him crazy. But I was like, baby, this meal doesn't matter in ten months and it doesn't matter in ten years. So we fall into this. I ask for grace. I set expectations like I'm not going to be the girl to pick out where we're going to go to eat. That is yours. Are we cool? We agree. And then I'm like, oh, look, okay. Strategy number five is the Pareto principle. This was coined by Wilfrid Pareto's 8020 rule. We're going to apply it here.

Jasmine Star (00:19:59) - So you want to focus on 20% of actions that will deliver 80% of your results okay. So people hear that. Here's the thing I used to hear that now would be like. How do I know? What are the 20% that are important? Well, now, what I want you to do is identify the high impact activities and then prioritize those. That's going to be what do I think? And it might be just like a really educated guess and that's fine. It's totally okay. What might I do that will get me the most amount of outcome? Maybe not responding to that email, even though it's really important I care about that person. Maybe that that's not going to be the lever. Maybe that doesn't qualify in the 20% today. And that's okay. So we covered analysis paralysis and the strategies to overcome it. Now what I want to do is I want to talk about the framework called the five Whys framework, aka the Toddler framework. At least that's like what I am calling it because no one asks why more than a toddler? Listen, if you are familiar with, living with, or ever had a toddler, their favorite question is why? Please brush your teeth.

Jasmine Star (00:21:09) - Why? It's time for you to finish your food. Why it's time to go to bed. Why? Okay, I first heard of the five Whys framework during a business scaling program through the Latino Business Action Network at Stanford University. I was in this program for six months, and we would be at Stanford, and we would be introduced to professors and theories and thoughts. Now we had to answer the five whys of our business. This framework implies that you can get to the root cause of just about anything by asking why five times. Now this works really well to get to the root cause of basically any business problem, or like maybe even your life issues. I will tell you that when we went through this five whys framework at Stanford, we're sitting in a, in a in a business lab. It was a branding lab. And we had to ask these five whys. And I'm telling you, there were like grown men crying in the room because we had to answer why we were building our business.

Jasmine Star (00:22:09) - And then you would answer, and then you have to ask yourself why? Then you would answer. You have to ask yourself why. And then all of a sudden. They got to the root reason, and it was never because they wanted to make more money or stand out or step into the big vision. It had something deeply rooted in who they were. The five Y framework works extremely well for analysis paralysis. And when you're trying to make moves toward something big, but you just can't get started on that big project like a new business, a new product launch or campaign. This strategy helps you find the why behind your hesitation, so you can address the root causes and get into action. So let's say that app creator that we just talked about a few minutes ago, let's say that she is stuck in the planning purgatory, constantly revisiting the app. Here's where the five whys might come in. Why haven't I launched my app yet? Because I'm worried it's not quite right. I'm going to know when it's perfect.

Jasmine Star (00:23:08) - Why am I worried about perfection? Because I fear that the users won't take my app seriously. Why do I fear that users won't take my app seriously? Because I doubt my abilities to succeed. Why do I doubt my abilities to succeed? Because I faced challenges in the past and I worry about repeating them. Why do I worry about repeating past challenges? Because I haven't fully embraced the lessons they taught me. Okay, so you can see how this process can reveal a core fear or factor that's driving that analysis paralysis. Once you understand the fifth why, you can start to address it by directly sitting with that underlying hesitancy that's keeping you stuck in getting unstuck. So in this case, it could be asking yourself, where did things go wrong and what could I have done differently in the past situations? I know it's uncomfortable, but sitting with these types of questions allows you to confront your fears and move into action. So I want to do a quick recap. We began by talking about what analysis paralysis is.

Jasmine Star (00:24:16) - Understanding different forms of each, which are planning purgatory, which is the endless cycle of strategizing without action. Then we spoke with the fear of failure, which is paralysis caused by the possibility of potential failure in decision aversion, which is the fear of making the wrong decision, leading to no action at all. Information overload, which is feeling overwhelmed by excessive data. And then you're delaying any action. Perfection. Paralysis. Obsessing over flawless this and then preventing any action. So to combat analysis paralysis we discussed five practical strategies. Number one, give yourself constraints. This helps by removing overwhelm and simplifying the decision making. Then we talked about the five second rule 54321. This helps you overcome hesitation by taking immediate action. Thirdly, we're going to create a bias towards action. I want you to adopt a mindset that prioritizes action over perfection. Basically, whenever you question if you should take action, take the action. Then we also spoke about the ten, ten, ten rule. This is when you evaluate any decision based on the impact in ten minutes, ten months or ten years.

Jasmine Star (00:25:31) - And lastly, we focused on the Pareto principle, which is to really hone in on the most important actions that yield the most results, 20% of those actions that are going to 80% of the results. Now, we also spoke about the five Whys framework or the toddler framework, which is when you ask why. Five times to uncover the root cause of analysis paralysis. Now, by addressing the underlying fears or hesitations, you can confront obstacles and then move forward with that confidence you really want. Yes. Amen. I have to tell you, y'all, the reason why I create these shows is because I see common themes with entrepreneurs, and those are probably the same common themes that I struggled with in the past. So I create these shows to walk you through things that I have learned, things that I have done, mistakes that I have made, and successes along the way. I hope that you take this. Apply it to yourself in your business to remove the paralysis that is keeping you stuck. Thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star Show.

Jasmine Star (00:26:32) - Did I just say dead to me? I can't even say my own name. And that's okay. If you made it here to this point. Thank you. It would be so amazing if you could leave a review. This podcast is made for you, and the way that we know we are resonating with listeners is simply by letting us know when you tag us in stories, when you send DMs, and most importantly, the reviews. The reviews live in public, which helps other guests and other listeners know that their time would be well spent here on the show. I am forever grateful to you. Creating the show is an honor and a privilege. Thank you for listening to The Jasmine Star Show.