What lies beneath an overthinking entrepreneur?

Overthinking doesn't always look the same. Here are three entrepreneurs struggling with overthinking in different ways.

Jane is a graphic designer. She has a keen eye for details and a unique perspective. Yet when working for clients, she keeps on overcommitting, overanalyzing, overpreparing and overexplaining. She would say yes to many projects, in the fear of missing out on an opportunity. But all these projects start to drain her, requiring her to switch her attention, work fast and leaving her with little creative energy. At times, she would do a never-ending research of the company or brand she works for. She says to herself 'I just need to better understand them to vibe well with their brand' but in practice she spends hours and hours distracting herself from the actual work. Another time, she would keep looking at a design, tweaking, adding some graphics, changing the color, removing it. Then adding it again. She in fact feels insecure and undecisive as to whether showcase the design, so she keeps redoing it. It just never really feels perfect. When finally pitching, she keeps on talking and talking about her design choices and why these are good for the brand. She keeps talking instead of letting her work talk to itself.

Mark on the other hand has a good business idea. Yet, he keeps on stalling, second-guessing and procrastinating. Although his plans are robust and his friends are saying 'This is a great idea. You might have not yet figured it all out, but you've got all you need to get started', he feels uncertain and insecure. 'How could I start without everything in good order, really? What if it turns out to be a complete disaster?' So he keeps on postponing the launch, adding more tasks to his tasks list which seem to add little value but they keep him busy. So he doesn't have to launch yet. He's looking for reassurance but perfecting the app and business plan doesn't seem to comfort him.

Natalie feels like she is juggling too much. As a solopreneur she is doing all aspects of her business from finance, marketing, strategy and delivery. She has limited budget, that is why she needs to do it, she tells herself. In fact, she struggles to let go of control, she is afraid to delegate parts of her work and when she does, she is micromanaging. She wants it all to be great and she is reluctant to trust herself and others to do the right things for her business. All she feels is how drained she is at the end of the day, because yet another day went by with her working out her invoices, chasing clients to pay, writing proposals, doing her socials and ad campaigns. But what she didn't have enough time for was the actual work, spending time with her clients, understanding their needs, brainstorming solutions, setting directions. All the other tasks has taken up her time and energy instead of focusing on the activities that deliver the most value to her and her clients.

Overthinking manifests in different ways.

What lies beneath an overthinking entrepreneur?

As a result of overthinking and insecurity, we may do different things. Perhaps we overdo every step of the way, or quite the opposite, we stall to move forward or in our efforts to focus on everything, we end up missing out on creating the value for our business that we want.

What's behind these manifestations of overthinking? Well, it depends. Often times, it comes down to fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of an irreversible wrong decision, fear of uncertainty, fear of discomfort (emotional, financial).

Once you are able to drill down to the fear behind the overthinking and associated behaviors, you can start questioning and changing it. Jane for instance, after realizing she is afraid of clients judging her work, and digging deeper into where this fear is coming from, she can learn to free herself and trust her instincts more to offer creative solutions for her clients. Or Mark, even though he is afraid of the unknown, he can choose to embrace it and look at every step as a discovery and learning, instead of a catastrophe. Natalie who is afraid of losing control, once realizing that she is spending her precious time on the wrong things, might start outsourcing and through a positive experience with an accountant, she gains trust to delegate other aspects of her work so she can dedicate as much of her time to her clients as possible.

Through IntroActive Coaching, overthinking entrepreneurs learn to spot their overthinking behaviors and get the guidance and support to unwrap the thought and emotional processes behind them to replace them with calm and clarity that enables their business' success.