Every day we make decisions, more or less important. Whether it's choosing what clothes to wear or what to eat, human beings are constantly making decisions. However, the decisions that are usually the most difficult or costly to make are those that affect us the most: accepting or rejecting a job, moving to another country, buying a house… It is common that when making important decisions we suffer a paralysis by analysis.
What is analysis paralysis?
Analysis paralysis is a phenomenon that It occurs when you get stuck trying to find an answer to a decision and, ultimately, you fail to make it. This often happens because you are searching for too much information to make the right decision.
Faced with a situation of this magnitude, faced with an important event, you will try to make the best possible decision, but the process for this can make you overload yourself with information and in the end it will be much harder for you to find an answer. Thinking about things too much makes more and more possible answers appear and what at first seemed simple, becomes the complete opposite.
Therefore, paralysis is a process that It makes your mind stop working because of the amount of information and pressure you put on it.making it increasingly difficult to make a decision among so many options.
Try a free session
Learn to manage your thoughts in stressful situations with the help of a psychologist.
Make an appointment
What else can cause analysis paralysis?
When making an important decision, the weight of the fear of making a mistakeWhen you are looking for an answer, you tend to think about it a lot and seek out as many reflections as possible in order to act correctly. As we have said, sometimes this exaggerated search for options can cause a blockage that can be identified, and also the search for so much information can be caused by the fear of not making the right decision, that is, of failure.
Therefore, analysis paralysis can be triggered not only by excessive information seeking, but also by anxiety that comes from finding the right decision. At the same time, this stress can also be a consequence of overthinking things.
How to make a good decision?
Given the doubt and distrust that comes with making a decision, we give you some advice to help you make a good decision:
- Evaluate all the optionsTo make the right decision, it is best to stay calm and look at the different options you have, their pros and cons, and choose based on your own benefits and interests.
- Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Starting out with a feeling of fear is not a good option, this will only make it harder for you to make the decision. You should not be afraid of making mistakes, but rather decide what you think is most convenient. In addition, you learn from mistakes and this can help you to evaluate different things in future decisions.
- It's okay if you make a mistakeThe perfect decision does not exist, you will never be 100% happy with a decision, therefore, choose according to the interests you want to cover and benefit from.
- Trust yourself. And at your discretion. Only you know what you want, what is best for you and what decision you should make.
Solution to analysis paralysis
To get rid of analysis paralysis what you can do is get rid of all that information overload that is preventing you from making the decision, that is, erasing from your mind the information that is of no use to you and focusing on what is really relevant and interesting to you. You have to keep in mind that there is probably no decision that has everything you are looking for and want, so you must weigh up which interests you want to prioritize and find the option that best suits you, within the possible limits.
Make the decision. Acting is the best solution, only then will you know if you have made the right decision. If not, it's okay, learn from mistakes It will also help you grow personally and improve when taking the next one.
As a possible solution, there is also going to therapythe help of a psychologist A professional can help you by working with you on self-confidence and your decisions. As well as knowing how to manage emotions and anxiety in cases like these and learning to guide you little by little in making these decisions according to what you really want.
At we have a group of psychology experts who can help you. More than 1,600 people have already contacted us, call and make an appointment for an online therapy session, First briefing is free.