Analysis Paralysis: The Art of the Pivot

It’s a common term for when you’re feeling so overwhelmed that you can’t move at all.
Being stuck.
Paralyzed.

There are different reasons for this:

• Too many options, so you can’t decide.

• Perfectionism leading to the desire for a perfect outcome (which you can never know beforehand).

• Fear of failure and the resulting negative outcome.

• Information overload leading to suffocation in the details.

Common patterns here are the need for control, the lost ability to surrender, and taking everything “deadly serious.” Flow, joy, and flexibility seem to be lost completely.

It’s a state where you might even feel it in your body - getting tensed up, breathing turning shallow, stress levels exploding. It’s being caught in a panic state.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I truly believe that life is meant to be enjoyed. Why else is almost everyone occupied with looking for a higher sense, for purpose, for happiness?

Source.

When you realize that almost none of your decisions are irreversible, you can almost immediately feel the pressure go. Most of them you can revert completely, or at least pivot from. It might take seconds or a few more moments (e.g., you decided to move to the other side of the country but get badly homesick - so maybe you need a few months to move back, or you move in with a friend in your hometown for the in-between), but it’s not a one-way street with a prohibition to return.

Life is flowing. So are your decisions.

Take them with this playfulness.

Be brave and curious. Go exploring.

And pivot when necessary.

Lexie.