To me, there's a fine line between thinking and doing, between laziness and self-doubt. For those who are over thinkers, like myself, the drive to do something can be overpowered by the many thoughts buzzing inside the mind, tugging confidence around and making a once firm plan disappear into thin air. Being an over thinker can be both a good thing and a downfall, as is the case with many perfectionists.

In fact, being a perfectionist is almost identical to being an over thinker.

The thing is, overthinking things does not technically mean that you want everything to be perfect. Certain circumstances call for perfection, while others just call for anyone and everyone to do their very best, whether that wins them an award or not. Self-doubt, confidence issues, and a tendency to be afraid of even the simplest of things can cause people to overthink to the point of self-destruction.

For example, I'm not a math person. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Not with that attitude!", but it's true. Since grade school, I never liked math. Numbers and equations tended to scare me, so I was always much better with words. However, I was a honor student. I was not bad at math at all, I just hated it. My dislike for the subject caused a lot of confidence issues once I got to high school level math, and it showed. I mean I really did not know what I was doing by then, and the levels of frustration caused a lot of overthinking, to the point where I did not even want to try to study because I just believed that I couldn't do it and doubted myself so much. I was not aware of the fact that I was an over thinker until my teacher told me one day when I was really down about my math grade. She told me that if I just stopped automatically thinking something was too complex, I would be able to see that math really was not that bad.

I still struggle with overthinking things today. My brain will sometimes warp the simplest of things into complex tasks, causing me to think that goals are unattainable or too big of a risk. Being an over thinker can turn a dreamer into a realist, which can be good sometimes but also highly unnecessary. I work hard everyday to, for lack of a better phrase, chill out. It's difficult to remind yourself to take a step back and not think, as normally people look at the big picture in order to process and think about the situation. What I have learned, however, is that sometimes thinking too much or too hard about something is overrated. A lot of self-doubt can cause problems in all aspects of life, and overthinking is a daily occurrence that can hinder to the point of self-doubt.

So, when you feel like your doubting yourself, try and figure out whether or not its because you are truly unable, or simply because you think you are unable. And then once you know you are capable, stop thinking, and start doing.