Are you experiencing Analysis Paralysis or avoidance issues in your business? This is something that I have seen with many businesses – you can get so involved with analyzing everything, that you forget you are in business to achieve something – like making money and helping your clients.
Of course, you could just be avoiding doing something – and that has the same impact as analysis paralysis.
Analysis Paralyisis occurs when you become obsessed with knowing EVERYTHING there is to know about something. When you get caught in this trap, you spend all your time analysing, and no time doing – and this is not healthy.
Avoidance generally occurs because you can’t ‘see’ what needs to be done and it all looks too much! Often avoidance occurs because you haven’t done the Analysis….
I am the first person to recommend that you spend time doing your research and understanding what you’re getting yourself into before you do anything – however, you need to balance that level of analysis with the need to actually do something.
After all, nothing really happens until a sale is made… and a sale only happens when you take action!
Here are some indicators that you might be stuck in Analysis Paralysis or simply avoiding taking action:
- You’re constantly researching and in doing so, you find more that you need to know before you can move forward.
- You keep asking the same question, of the same and different people, and getting the same answer – but you want a different answer
- You’re too busy to implement any of the strategies you decide on
- Something else always comes up that needs attention – at times, the filing may seem very important!
I sometimes find myself sitting at my desk in the office, organizing the icons the desktop – and it’s when that happens that I stop and ask myself why I’m really doing it…. This is a sure sign that I am avoiding something!
Fear Plays A Part
Sometimes, Analysis Paralysis and Avoidance is due to fear – fear of not knowing enough, fear of failing or possibly fear of succeeding (to name a few) – and we really have to overcome that fear.
Sometimes, doing the analysis helps allay our fears – particularly the fear of not knowing however, be aware that we can take analysis to a level that it becomes avoidance!
But What About Overwhelm?
Sometimes the lack of action is due, purely and simply, to OVERWHELM. There is so much information to take in, so many things to do to make that action happen, so many people to coordinate – that we freeze and don’t know where to start and we literally freeze. (Sometimes, I just want to go back to bed and pretend the world does’t exist!)
How Can You Help You?
When this happens, I find that breaking the activities down into very, tiny chunks really helps.
Then, I’m able to write myself out a step by step plan to just get started.By ‘chunking it down’, I’m able to tick off the activities as I do them and feel a real sense of achievement, which then helps me take the next step. Before I know it, I’ve finished my project and moving forward!
It sometimes difficult doing this by myself, so I work with an accountability partner or a coach, to help me gain clarity around what is important, what isn’t, what can be done now and what needs to wait until other activities are finished. When I work with other Business People, this is often the first thing we do – get clear on the goals and the actions that need to be taken.
Some great resources that I have found in helping me gain clarity include:
Jacqueline Wales from The Fearless Factor has some excellent ways to overcome Fear and achieve great success.
Kate Sanner from Boost Your Self Confidence In 90 Days works with Women (and Men) to boost self confidence to achieve success.
I had the privilege to interview both of these Women on the Stretch Your Mind and Body talk show and they offer a lot of value.
Please share your techniques for overcoming Analysis Paralysis and Avoidance — what works for you….
0 comments