In
Aesop's fable – ‘The Fox and the Cat’, the fox boasts of ‘hundreds of ways of
escaping’ while the cat has ‘only one’. When the hounds approached, the cat
scampered up a tree while the fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds.
The fable underlines the lesson, ‘Better one safe way than a hundred on which
you cannot reckon’.
So often, so many of us believe
that the more we think about something, the better our decision will be. We ponder
a decision for hours or even days. We keep pursing the identification of
multiple options. However, research has shown that over-thinking a dilemma can
actually result in a poorer decision.
This does not campaign for a
spur-of-the-moment whimsical resolution. Instead, we must use the process of unconscious
thought... we give the problem time to be mulled over in the back of our mind, yet
do not actively think about it. In situations involving complex decisions,
unconscious thought is found to outperform the more logical and analytical
counterpart.
We must avoid wasting too much
time going over the same points again and again in our heads. Instead, we must bring
key issues to mind, and then relax and give ourselves some time to absorb it.
Many of us do this already - we are often reluctant to rush into a decision before
‘sleeping on it’ - however we also waste a lot of time agonizing over the pros
and cons.
Our unconscious mind is better equipped
to unite the various considerations, implications and solutions. However, we
tend to consciously dig up a wealth of options and often lose focus from
identifying practical solutions. We must remember the famous maxim – ‘too much
of analysis causes paralysis’!
Over-thinking often creates a defeating paralysis...
The unconscious mind will ‘unite to impact’ analysis!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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