When Overthinking Becomes Toxic
When Overthinking Becomes Toxic
The hidden danger in trying to outsmart your future self.
Please hit the ❤️ “Like” button at the top or bottom of this article if you enjoy it. It helps others find this article.
Dear Unlearners,
If you haven't noticed, I have an obsession with time. Most of my theories are about past, present, and future. In a way, we are all time travelers, but not in the sci-fi sense you might be thinking. We're constantly bouncing between memories of the past, worries about the future, and occasionally, the reality of the present.
Life is basically a giant game of dominoes. But instead of tiny rectangles with dots, we're dealing with actions and reactions. When I was a child, I obsessed with dominoes. Never in a million years did I think I'd be playing this game in real life.
The domino effect is when one domino falls, knocking down the next, and so on. Every little thing you do sets off a series of reactions. It's just like flicking that first domino in one of those crazy YouTube videos.
Before you know it, hundreds or even thousands of dominoes are falling down in a spectacular chain reaction. Same thing happens in life.
When you solve a problem in life, you will create new problems. It's straight out of those Rachel McAdam's time travel movies. When the main character goes back in time to fix something, only to change the future. We're all time travelers. We are busy setting up dominoes in the present that will fall in our future.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. And you do that one present-moment action at a time.
Here's where overthinking becomes toxic. It's easy to get caught up in mental time travel. We all love to worry about all the dominoes that might fall tomorrow, next week, or next year. We spend hours imagining every possible outcome, every potential disaster. This is overthinking at its worst. It's paralyzing us with anxiety about future domino patterns we can't possibly predict.
But while we're busy overthinking every possible domino fall, we're missing out on the most important part: setting up our dominoes right now. We're so focused on potential future problems that we neglect the present, where real change happens.
Trying to predict every fall, every twist and turn is impossible and leads to toxic overthinking. We should concentrate on the dominoes right in front of us. Maybe just focus on today's problem, and deal with tomorrow's problems when tomorrow comes. Because maybe tomorrow it won't even be a problem.
The future isn't some far off place we're trying to get to. It's being created right now, with every choice we make, every domino we place or knock down. So let's stop trying to time travel in our minds, stop the cycle of toxic overthinking, and start living in the present.
After all, life isn't about avoiding falling dominoes or obsessively planning their patterns. It's about enjoying the beautiful, unpredictable designs they create as they fall. And who knows? The chain reaction you start today, by taking action instead of overthinking, might just lead to a future more amazing than anything you could have predicted or worried about.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some dominoes to flick. The future's waiting, and I've got a chain reaction to start. One that begins with choosing action over overthinking.
Please hit the ❤️ “Like” button below if you enjoyed this post, it helps others find this article. If you’re a Substack writer and have been enjoying Daily Unlearner, consider adding it to your recommendations. Your support means the world.
More To Unlearn
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Outsmarting Overachievers
Is Substack becoming Medium 2.0
please dear unlearners, stop worrying or defending yourselves from the unknowable future; extend the present instead.
Each domino/ choice does matter, but rather than procrastinate or being afraid of dire consequences like failing, just respond! Thanks for the prompt, Cammi.