Too much alcohol, especially binge drinking, can have negative impact on physical health, mental health, work performance, tolerance levels, anxiety levels and more.
But what about binge thinking? Thinking about problems over and over instead of meeting them head on. Constantly evaluating your life instead of living it. Sitting there worrying, too afraid to act just in case the worst-case scenario you invented actually comes to pass. How might that impact your physical health, mental health, work performance, tolerance levels, anxiety levels and more?
Exactly! Binge thinking, or intense over-thinking, can be paralysing. And worst of all, it can mean that reality becomes more about what you’re thinking, than what you’re doing. And in this so short life of ours, that’s such a shame. Here are six pointers that might just encourage you to live your life in the real world, rather than inside your head.
1. Be Specific. Especially when it comes to thinking about purpose. You probably know that purpose is important. Goodness knows there are enough people talking about it. But if you aren’t specific when it comes to trying to work out your purpose, you’ve nowhere to go. Yes, you want to help the disadvantaged. Yes, you want to stick up for the bullied. Yes, you want to support the silenced to be heard. But what are you actually going to do? Be precise. And start small. Because if you don’t, you may never start anything that really matters to you and anybody else – at all.
2. Focus on the right place when goal setting. If you are more in love with and obsessed by the fine detail of your goal, than you are with the processes you have to go through to achieve it, you’re focussing in the wrong place. OK, so the prize looks great. But if you don’t consider the effort and hard work and sacrifice along the way you’ll just end up being frustrated. Love the goal. But – somehow – learn to love the process of getting there just as much.
3. Compartmentalise. Prioritise. And Say ‘No’. If a desire to be fitter is something that feels trapped inside your mind – do this. If you want to go to the gym 3 times each week, 90 minutes each time, put that in your diary before anything else. Then think about what else is trapped inside your mind. Then put that in your diary too. Then compartmentalise your job – properly. Yes, create a small amount of daily ‘slush’ time in which you can be more reactive than proactive. But be proactive first. And say no more. Be more sensible with how you get ideas out of your head, and how you turn them into actual tasks in your real life. Because if you don’t, the old familiar feelings of work never being completed, hours disappearing to who-knows-where, stress and tiredness, brain fuzz and forgetfulness, and feeling endlessly battered by urgent requests – they’ll never, ever go. 4. Don’t bond with people over things you all don’t like. Look for things you all do like, instead. OK you’ve got to be honest with yourself with this one. Negative, whiney people attract other negative whiney people. And whilst we all like a good old moan sometimes, be careful. Focussing too much on the shortcomings of others paralyses you. It saps your energy. And it almost always leads to, and actually supports, inaction.
5. Stop being frightened. Yes, this is definitely easier said than done. But remember, life is short. So see if you recognise any of this in yourself. If you tend to resist, avoid thinking about or talk yourself out of moving towards the things you want most, fear is getting in the way. You’ve convinced yourself you don’t deserve the thing you want most, so you don’t even try. And as a consequence, the thing you desire never sees the light of day. You keep it locked away in your head. Because you’re scared you may never be able to achieve it. Or worse still (so you tell yourself ) you may get it – then lose it again. In summary, there is in fact only one sure-fire way to never have the things you really want. And that’s to never try.
6. Stop thinking backwards. One of the main reasons we live inside our heads instead of getting on with living our lives in the real world is because we are thinking backwards. Specifically, we think that once everything miraculously drops into place, life begins. When in actual fact, it is only when we start to live our lives that things drop into place. Binge thinking, just like binge drinking, is nothing more than a place to hide. And if you hate the hangover you get from a few hours of binge drinking, imagine the hangover you’ll get from a lifetime of binge thinking.
Yuk!
