I once saw a sales rep stare at a phone for an hour while he was trying to make phone calls.  Seriously, a whole hour.  He had an unfortunate combination of intelligence and imagination that let him think of all the “bad” things that could happen when he made calls to set up appointments.  He could think of all the rejection and failure and accompanying negative feelings.   He was, in actuality, a very skilled rep who had great success whenever he worked with customers.  That was hard for him to remember as he thought of every possible outcome of his phone calls – good and bad.

That hour was the first time I encountered “analysis paralysis” up close.  This is when our thinking mind becomes a hindrance instead of a help.  It’s when the sales rep thinks about all the negative outcomes of an action, or won’t take action until they feel they know everything.  It also happens when salespeople (and especially business owners) spend hours and hours poring over their sales/production/revenue numbers.  By analyzing the facts endlessly, they think they will find the magic answer, when in reality, they just spend hours looking at facts.

Why is this a problem?  Because it keeps people from actually doing anything.

There’s a quote from JFK on my desk that says, “Things don’t happen, they are made to happen.”  There’s nothing wrong with planning for possibilities and analyzing your numbers, but you can’t get stuck in doing so.

Think about this:

It goes: Ready Aim Fire

Not: Ready Fire Aim

And Not: Ready Aim Aim Aim Aim Aim Aim

Everyone has that one part of their life or business that is stuck in analysis paralysis.  What is it for you?

And what are you going to do about it?