I was reading a post on CopyBlogger yesterday about The Cure For Analysis Paralysis. This is a phenomenon often written about and often experienced today. In fact, this information overload that prevents us from making decisions is epidemic in our modern world.
Just about everyone knows the feeling of having too many choices or too much information to process. So many sources of information are bombarding us from one moment to the next that we are immersed in a constant flow of data of all kinds. Think about it: radio, television, internet, from the moment you wake in the morning. Even the signs along the road on your commute to work are animated now so that far more information can be packed into that fleeting few moments of attention as you’re rushing past.
I’ve written before about ways of tuning out the information overload and how to focus through the deluge of data. Those techniques are valid, but there is one simple idea that shines through: act now.
I don’t mean to say that you should blindly make a decision, but that you should take the inputs that you have and act on them or choose not to act. Regardless, the idea is to take some sort of action to clear the mental clutter, to flush all that extraneous data out of the buffer of your mind so that you have room to move on to the next task, but, more importantly, so that you have peace.
Yes, peace. This sense of harmony and balance seems to be missing from today’s world. We all rush from one thing to another, rarely completing, really completing and putting an end to each task, before moving on to something else. Do you remember that feeling from long ago in your childhood? That sense of waking up with nothing to do? Nothing you have to do. Wonderful.
I’m not talking about being bored. I’m talking about the freedom to choose whatever you want to do today because yesterday you cleared your plate. You dealt with all of the myriad of inputs and decisively put each in its proper place or appropriately discarded it. This is harmony. This is peace.
Think about this today. How can I complete this task and just be done with it? How can I remove this nagging from my mental space? Make some decisions about the things that are bugging you and move on. You’ll feel peaceful.
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Thank you for the ideas Ray. It’s helpful for people to understand that they can improve their lives by taking responsibility for what they do (or don’t do). When we take responsibility for everything that’s going well or perhaps faltering in our lives we then have the power to do something about it. It’s like taking a good look at ourselves and figuring out what we need to do to improve our lives. It requires taking action, but it sure feels great to actually do stuff to make our lives happier and more fulfilling.
I absolutely agree, Guy. Often I think it’s like waking from a dream when people realize that there really are choices in life. It’s not just a dream, in fact, but changes really are possible if we just take initiative and go for it. And it’s so true that a key step is acceptance that we have put ourselves where we are and we are the only ones who can change that. Thanks for your comment!