Analysis paralysis. It’s easy to get stuck in it, isn’t it? I’ve been stuck in it at work, running numbers on every available design option before I was willing to share ANY of the options with someone else. I wanted to get all my numbers perfect before sharing them.

When it came to writing a book, it’s something that I had wanted to do for YEARS, but never got around to doing. Life kept getting in the way. Perhaps you can relate.

Or maybe you’re like some of my clients when they started with me:

Sara, an engineer who was brimming with ideas, but struggled with sharing them at work, let alone getting buy-in for them.
Mary, who didn’t love her job, but couldn’t find any better options so she stayed where she was.
Selena, who had always wanted to start her own business, yet hasn’t made any progress on that dream.
Terri, who kept hoping that if she worked harder, her manager would notice and give her a long-overdue raise.

We’ve all been in this spot where we knew wanted to move forward but didn’t.

It’s frustrating and demoralizing to stay stuck in analysis paralysis. When you can’t make a decision, you put it off, do more research, or avoid the subject all together instead of meeting it head on. Getting stuck in it routinely is also detrimental to your professional reputation, and will ultimately hold you back from a leadership position if you don’t adopt strategies to move forward despite some level of uncertainty.

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The 3 Traps that Keep Us Stuck in An Exhausting Analysis Paralysis Loop

The 3 traps I am about share are common patterns I have seen in both myself and the women I coach. They hold you back from achieving your maximum potential and enjoying a fulfilling career.

The reason we see these patterns to begin with is not your fault, and is a combination of societal stereotypes ingrained in work cultures and going to work in a place where you feel like you can’t bring all the pieces of you there.

The problem comes when we start to rationalize why we are staying stuck in those patterns, instead of recognizing the root causes and doing something about it. The reason the patterns exist aren’t your fault, but how you choose to deal with the fallout is.

The three traps that cause analysis paralysis are:

#1 Equating your worth with productivity

How it shows up: You tell yourself things like: “I need more experience/credentials/project work of this type…and THEN I’ll go for it.” or “When I make it I’ll finally attend to my health and take a vacation. If you also believe that work ethic solves virtually every problem, this is an also an indication that you are equating worthiness with productivity.
Root cause: You believe that your worth as a person is directly tied to your productivity. You believe that you are not worthy of success just as you are. You struggle with feeling “good enough” often.
Break the cycle: First, make a pointed effort to spend more time with people who value you as YOU, not just what you can do for them. That also includes getting to know your coworkers on more-than-a-transactional basis.
I also have a book recommendation: “Laziness Does Not Exist” by Devon Price. This was actually a recommendation from my own coach when she saw how much I was struggling with this issue and stuck in hyper-achievement mode.

#2 Serial Planning

How it shows up: You keep working the plan because it isn’t perfect, expecting it to account for every possible current and future contingency. You avoid doing anything at all without a plan. You have some big dreams and have started plans for them, but you never seem to move on those plans. Perfectionists often fall into this trap.

Root cause: Low confidence and fear of failure/uncertainty.
Break the cycle: Give yourself a time limit to plan, and understand that you CANNOT account for every contingency when it comes to career planning and career trajectories. There are simply too many unknowns.
Then, pick the first thing to do on the list to start executing your plan and DO IT. A small amount of consistent progress routinely is better a perfect plan that isn’t executed.

#3 Learning instead of Executing

How it shows up: Learning for the sake of learning something you might need “someday”. You focus on credentials, courses, or going back to school as primary ways to get ahead or make a career pivot. You are often very, very comfortable learning or doing research, and are often less comfortable with asking for what you want at work or networking, which are usually faster and much less costly ways to achieve the same goals as credentials, courses, or going back to school.

Root cause: You love learning and are very curious. This isn’t a bad thing…..unless you are using it as a procrastination tactic to continue doing more research or taking a class, etc. before moving forward.
Break the cycle: Adopt a “just in time” learning mindset instead of a “just in case” mindset. Learn things as you need them and can immediately practice what you’ve learned. This reduces overwhelm and the learning curve for projects, because you learn just enough to execute the next step, you master that, and then you repeat the process.

4 Questions to Ask To Break the Analysis Paralysis Cycle

Understanding the traps is important, because if you’re anything like me you’ve often used those traps to rationalize why you can’t go for what you want right now.

Maybe it’s advocating for yourself at work, or starting your own side hustle or business, or having that difficult conversation with your manager. Whatever it is for you, here are four questions to ask yourself the next time you find yourself stuck in analysis paralysis to kickstart your next move:

Why am I stuck?
Is it really for a legitimate reason or am I using the lies of equating worth with productivity, serial planning, or that I need to learn something else as excuses because I am afraid?
Be honest with yourself. Most of the time, if you’re trying to find a reason to wait to do what you really want, you’ve fallen into the rationalization trap, and are using your logical mind to hide from fear of failure, uncertainty, or what other people might think of you.
You can choose to stay stuck, but whatever you do, don’t lie to yourself about what is going on.
What assumptions am I making about this situation that are keeping me from moving forward and are they true?
Are you assumptions supported by facts and data, or are they suppositions only? There’s usually more than one perspective to the story, and it can be easy to jump to conclusions, especially in a conflict situation where emotions are high. Check the validity of your assumptions.
If I had 100% confidence in myself and my abilities, how would I show up in this situation?
If you were showing up as a leader in your current role, what would you do. To be clear: I’m not asking you to pretend to be the boss if you aren’t. What I am asking is for you to consider if you are taking complete responsibility to OWN your current role and are showing up as the best possible problem-solving version of yourself.
There is always something you can do in any situation. How might you be proactive in addressing the situation and move it forward?
What is one thing can I do in this moment to move me one step closer to showing up as I want and/or resolving this situation?
It’s easy to feel like a victim of circumstances. It’s much harder to look a less-than-ideal reality head on and decide that you are not going to let it get you down, and that you’re going to do something about it. There is always something you can do, even if it’s deciding to do nothing at the moment. They key is to mindfully make the decision so you are empowering yourself with that decision instead of feeling like you’re just reacting to your circumstances.

Two examples of applying these questions to scenarios that COULD keep you stuck in analysis paralysis are shown below. Tune into the video at the top of this page if you’d like a more detailed explanation of each.