Analysis Paralysis and What If.......

My full-time job, aka my “professional” job, in its most simple state requires that I use performance metrics to tell a story of what is going on in the business.  By analyzing and evaluating the numbers the story can be either positive, negative or somewhere in between.  When I present these numbers to a client, someone always wants to dig deeper.  It usually goes something like “This information is good, but what if you look at performance on every other Tuesday, between the hours of 9:30 and 11:15, only in months ending with a y.”  When you hear the dreaded words “what if”, you know the meeting has just derailed and may never get back on track.   

In what I call my all-the-time job, aka being a mom, I am also faced with situations where I have to analyze and evaluate situations and then provide recommendations for the next action.  Though they sound like the same task, they’re obviously very different.  As a mom you analyze, evaluate and respond in a matter of seconds.  No time for pretty charts and there aren’t weeks to prepare, you’re in the thick of it and you have to respond.  You have some “data” to refer to – usually a conversation you had with a friend or an article you read on line – but for the most part you go with your gut.  Often the analysis and evaluation happens after, when you are replaying it your head.  Suddenly I am on the other side of my previously dreaded “what if”.

Many of the great things that surround us every day are the positive result of someone saying “what if”.  However often what happens is that “what if” can lead you to asking more and more questions and reading more and more articles.  Then you hit a point that I call analysis paralysis.  You are surrounded by so much information that you are literally paralyzed and unable to move forward as no answer seems to be 100% right.  Analysis paralysis can also be where you just keep gathering data and never act on it.  You think that after you get the answer to x, then you’ll have enough to move forward.

But guess what, the good news and the bad news is that life moves to fast to get stuck in analysis paralysis.  It’s bad news because you’ve got to pick a road and go for it.  It’s good news because you’ll realize quickly if you have to adjust your course, so you tweak it and keep going.

What if you stop worrying and trust your gut?

What if you stop stressing out and slow down?

What if you stop beating yourself up and forgive yourself?

What if you take a deep breath and relax?

Heart-FULLy yours, 

Kacey