Do you ever predict that some future event will turn out terrible for you? A lot of
people do. This is a pretty common human behavior. It’s probably rooted in a
survival instinct response. You want to constantly monitor your surroundings for
anything that may harm you in some way, physically, mentally, or emotionally.
If you have a big test, you start thinking about what will happen if you fail. Before
you know it, your every waking thought leads to nervousness and anxiety. Even
though you are prepared for the test, all this obsessing over a potentially poor
outcome causes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You predict failure, and … that’s what you create.
This is a simple example of overthinking things. It’s what humans love to do for
whatever reasons. We constantly create pictures in our minds of a terrible
outcome with dire consequences. These thoughts persist and grow until they
totally overtake rationality.
Overthinking and Inventing Dire Consequences Almost Always Make Things
Much Worse Than They Are Ever Going to Be
Thoughts are just thoughts. They are not reality. How many times do you have
dozens of conflicting thoughts every day? It happens all the time. You might think
about a possible outcome so much that you create dozens of potential realities.
Guess what? Only one reality is possible. It might not even be one you imagined.
And most of the time, that obsessive, negative inner voice that never seems to
shut up will paint a picture that’s nowhere close to reality.
Win or lose, succeed or fail, things are rarely as bad as you expect they’re going to
be.
Stay in the Moment and Embrace Your “Now” for More Success, Less Stress, and
More Peace of Mind
When you’re constantly giving life to less than positive thoughts, you’re allowing
for the creation of a negative outcome. When most of your thoughts are of a
negative nature, life shows us that that’s more of what we’re going to receive.
To remove a lot of the negativity in your life, the failures and mistakes, start
embracing the current moment. Don’t worry about your past. Don’t fret over the
future. Learn from past mistakes and use them to plan for a better future, but
spend most of your time in the present.
Embrace your current moment, this single instance in time. It allows you to focus
on what you’re doing right now to create more future success. You only control
the present moment, so give that point in time most of your focus.
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