Podcaster Discusses Negative Overthinking

Podcaster Rob Dial repeats himself a lot over the course of weeks... a recent show had him discussing how people tend to overthink.  Dial takes the position that you're always thinking...it's what your brain does and is designed to do.  It's the negative thoughts that he wants to curtail...and even with them he acknowledges that they grew out of a survival mechanism from the distant past when consequences for a careless action may well have led to death (the "walk out of the cave at the wrong time and get eaten by a leopard" scenario).  But in today's "civilized" social setting, allowing fear and doubt to dominate one's thoughts about their abilities and prospects can be a real impediment to growth and personal transformation.  He lists five areas to focus on: 

--Develop self-awareness...look at yourself as if you were someone else looking at you...put your thoughts down on paper.  

--Stop trying to be perfect...nobody is, it's an exercise in futility: nobody knows what they're doing, they're just trying to do their best.  

--Stop trying to control everything.  Learn to accept the unknown...this will give you the opportunity to learn new things.

--Put your life in perspective and realize it's not so terrible...look at all the poverty and suffering in the world and realize how amazing your life is.  Instead, search for things to be grateful for.

--Finally, come up with a plan to deal with overthinking whenever it happens. Hack a new way, self-program the brain to think differently whenever the negative cues arise.

Dial is a big advocate of working things out with pen and paper...and then burning it afterward if necessary.  I can dig most if not all of what he's saying here, except the part where "nobody knows what they're doing"...maybe that's so, but too many go around acting like they're on some high pedestal looking down on me, and presumably on others as well.  But that's probably just a defense mechanism of theirs, right? Let's see...I'm aware of myself, I know I'm sure as hell not perfect, I learned long ago the uselessness of trying to control everything, and that I have a lot to be grateful for in my life. I guess it's that last point, about having a plan to deal with negative cues in my life when they arise, that I could use some serious work on...