Within every great success story, there are many obstacles the leading character must overcome. It’s unavoidable. In fact, a person’s mentality is one of the most common and largest obstacles. Why aren’t you applying for that new marketing executive job? What is keeping you from continuing to advance your skillset? The reality is, overthinking is the cause of many people’s self-inflicted fears, doubt, low self-esteem, physical disabilities, and mental blocks.
Sadly enough, most people find it hard to push themselves beyond these limits and some don’t even know they have already given up. It’s natural to be concerned that your idea isn’t good enough and to feel that by spending more time thinking about it, you can improve it. However, obsessing about the past is a waste of time and resources. If you continue to make room for negativity, it can stunt your career growth. Here is what headhunters for marketing executives learned about overthinking during our 25+ years of experience.
Can Overthinking Stunt Your Career Growth Or The Chance To Land Your Dream Marketing Executive Job?
Overthinking Causes You To Achieve Less
The answer is yes. According to Forbes, a study was done to compare how many papers were published by professors with different mindsets. The results showed those who self-reported being perfectionists published fewer papers and were less cited in journals than their colleagues.
This proves overthinking can impact your work productivity. Perfection is an unrealistic goal. If you are an overthinker, you might believe replaying those situations could help you overcome them the next time it happens. However, more often than not, over-analyzing causes you to dwell on the problem and imagine different scenarios that could potentially never happen.
The reality is effective leaders who want to further their career growth can not be scared to take risks. You have to allow yourself to test new methods and ideas. Only then will you be able to learn from your mistakes and grow as a marketing professional.
Overthinking Causes You To Be Less Effective
Overthinking not only restricts you from accomplishing more but also affects your capabilities. When overthinkers begin to analyze certain situations, there is no telling when they will stop thinking about the event. In most cases, they could stay up all night thinking about one scenario. Therefore, if you are an overthinker, you are probably dealing with sleeping issues. You are not giving your mind and body enough rest. This, in turn, will decrease your effectiveness as a whole.
For years, scientists have been trying to find the real purpose of sleep. What they found is that your body and brain cells regenerate themselves while you are resting. As a result, if you are not resting properly, you will be more prone to forgetfulness or distractedness. All of which will affect how much workload you can get done, the quality of your work, and how fast you can progress within your marketing executive job.
Solution For Overthinkers
The best solution is to trust yourself. You were hired for that role because the company believes you have the experience and capabilities to carry out your daily responsibilities effectively. Trust that you have given it your best and make room for improvements.
To better be aware of when you are overthinking or to reduce the amount of overthinking, here are some tips you can use in your daily life:
- Start a new project. Find something else to focus your attention on.
- Stop and take a breath. Give yourself 10 minutes to write down what you believe you could have done better and put it away.
- Imagine the bigger picture. Small mistakes are nothing compared to the end goal.
- Acknowledge your success.
- Most importantly, take action. What are your solutions? How will you improve?
Conclusion
The bottom line is no one is perfect. By overthinking or overanalyzing, you are affecting how you interact with others and the way you do things. You need to pay attention to the way you handle different situations and become aware of your bad mental habits. Over time, you will build a stronger mindset and become more helpful, productive, and effective.
While headhunters for marketing executives have pointed out the consequences of overthinking, it is up to you to determine the right solution for you. In the end, you are the only one who can determine the speed of your career growth.
Author: Melissa Van Rossum