Overthinker Support Gifts

Four Types of Test-Takers...

"Bark or stare? Always a tough decision. Bark? Maybe stare? Whimper? Maybe? Meanwhile, stare."

They hated me.

"Good" "Bad" "Work on it" "Keep working - maybe it's not as bad as you think it is" "Put it to a committee" "Give up" "Make it worse" "Make it better" "Still a bad idea" "Overthink it" "Throw yourself into a pit of wild badgers" "Throw it away" "Call it done" "Sigh."

"It's days like this that make me long for days like this."

"Try thinking about something else."

"Ideas that jump from noggin when head not yet screwed on."

"Isn't it an amazing co-incidence that this is an orange, and it IS ORANGE?"

"The overthinker"

No Immediate Danger

That party went well.

"Well, if you're still awake when the time changes, you'll lose an hour of overthinking everything, too."

A Hypochondriac's Worst Nightmare

"This may be Malcolm Gladwell talking, but we were married on the wrong day!"

"Perhaps there is such a thing as being too well-informed."

'Not only do we have no natural enemies we have no natural friends.'

Thinking and thinking backwards.

"I think he said he wants to buy 'just the one'. You'd better fetch the manager"

You have reached the end of your brain...

"I made a list of all my symptoms. Lost the list. Can't remember any of my symptoms now."

"If I go to the party alone, will I be able to leave when I want? But then, there's always the possibility that I will get stuck talking to someone. I can't shake the problem is me. What if no one else likes me? I'm the only one being critical... The issue is I'm not enough and it's really so huge." "The over thinker"

'You look like you have a lot on your mind, Jim!'

"You're overthinking this."

Concern Chart

'I'm worried about not being worried...'

"My problem is I obsess over whether I worry enough."

"Thanks a bunch. I'll just run these by our committee and pass them along."

'Let's hold off making a decision until we have even more information we don't really need.'

Flowchart of an idea.

Sometimes a Good Excuse to Get off the Telephone is Hard to Find

"The Talmudic umpire It may have been a strike, since it cut the corner of the plate, and yet it was a trifle high, but not really that high, and yet it seemed to curve over the plate..."

"No, I don't want a glass of water, but I'm worried that I might want one."

Interview anxiety