Note 046
I was watching a video recently of a professional cleaner.
She specializes in cleaning homes that have reached the point where professional intervention is needed—the kind of homes you might see featured on Hoarders.
At the beginning of the video, she’s standing in what looks like a completely overwhelming living room.
And before she even starts, she says something that immediately caught my attention:
“Your brain is telling you it will take longer than it actually will.”
I paused.
Because…
She’s right.
And not just about cleaning.
I’ve done my fair share of deep cleaning and decluttering.
I’ll look at a dresser drawer and think:
“I’ll clean this really quickly.”
And somehow…
three hours later…
I’m sitting on the floor going through things I forgot I owned, deciding what to keep, what to donate, what needs to be thrown away, and wondering how one drawer became an entire life project.
But what she’s talking about isn’t necessarily how long something actually takes.
It’s how overwhelming our brain makes it feel before we begin.
And that got my Overthinkers brain going.
Because how many things have we avoided simply because we convinced ourselves they were going to be too hard?
Too complicated.
Too uncomfortable.
Too time-consuming.
Too scary.
Too much.
We do this with our lives too.
Maybe you’ve been thinking about changing careers.
And your brain says:
“Starting over is going to take forever.”
So you stay.
Maybe you’ve been wanting to go back to school.
“I’m too old. It’ll take years.”
So you don’t.
Maybe your finances need some serious attention.
“I’ll never get this under control.”
So you avoid looking at the numbers.
Maybe your house needs decluttering.
“This is going to take me weeks.”
So you keep walking past the mess.
Maybe you’ve outgrown a friendship.
“Ending this relationship is going to be so complicated.”
So you stay.
Maybe you’ve been unhappy in a particular season of your life.
“Changing everything would be too much.”
So you convince yourself to tolerate it a little longer.
Maybe you’ve been dreaming about starting a business, writing the book, taking the class, getting healthier, creating something, or simply becoming a different version of yourself.
And your brain whispers:
“That’s going to take too long.”
So you don’t start.
But here’s the problem with that thinking.
You’re calculating the difficulty of the entire journey before you’ve taken the first step.
You’re looking at the mountain instead of the next step.
You’re imagining six months from now.
A year from now.
Five years from now.
You’re thinking about everything that has to happen.
Everything that could go wrong.
Everything you don’t know.
Everything you’ll have to give up.
Everything you’ll have to learn.
And suddenly…
doing nothing feels easier.
But doing nothing has a cost too.
You just don’t always see the bill immediately.
Staying stuck takes time too.
That’s the part we don’t think about.
You might say:
“Changing careers will take two years.”
But staying in a career you hate for another two years also takes two years.
You might say:
“Getting my finances together will take forever.”
But ignoring your finances for another year doesn’t make the problem disappear.
You might say:
“Decluttering my house will take too long.”
But living surrounded by things that overwhelm you every day is costing you something too.
You might say:
“Starting over will be difficult.”
It probably will.
But staying somewhere you’ve already outgrown can be difficult too.
Time is going to pass either way.
The question is:
What will you have to show for it when it does?
Sometimes we need to stop thinking about the entire project.
Maybe you don’t have to clean the whole house today.
Clean the drawer.
Maybe you don’t have to figure out your entire career.
Research one option.
Maybe you don’t have to fix your entire financial life overnight.
Look at one account.
Maybe you don’t have to become a completely different person tomorrow.
Change one habit.
Maybe you don’t have to know exactly where you’re going.
Just take the next step.
Because once you start, something interesting happens.
The thing that looked enormous from a distance starts becoming manageable.
One drawer becomes clean.
One application gets submitted.
One class gets researched.
One conversation happens.
One payment gets made.
One workout gets completed.
One page gets written.
One decision gets made.
And suddenly…
you’re moving.
Overthinkers, this is where we can get ourselves in trouble.
We can spend so much time thinking about doing something that we confuse thinking about it with actually doing it.
We plan.
We research.
We analyze.
We prepare.
We imagine every possible outcome.
And eventually we’re exhausted from something we haven’t even started.
😂
Sometimes the answer isn’t another hour of thinking.
Sometimes the answer is:
Just start.
Not because you know exactly what you’re doing.
Not because you know how long it will take.
Not because you know exactly how it will end.
But because you’ll never know what is possible if you never begin.
And maybe the cleaner’s advice applies to more than clutter.
Maybe your brain is telling you that rebuilding your life will take longer than it actually will.
Maybe it’s telling you that becoming healthier will take too long.
That rebuilding your confidence will take too long.
That making new friends will take too long.
That finding yourself again will take too long.
That starting over will take too long.
That learning something new will take too long.
That healing will take too long.
That creating the life you want will take too long.
Maybe.
Maybe it will take time.
But time is going to pass anyway.
And you don’t have to complete the entire journey today.
You just have to be willing to begin.
A Note for Today
The next time your brain tells you:
“That’s going to take forever.”
“That’s too much.”
“I’ll never be able to do all of that.”
Stop.
Ask yourself:
“Do I actually know that, or am I overwhelmed by the thought of beginning?”
Because sometimes the hardest part isn’t the work.
It’s the story we tell ourselves about the work before we ever start.
So clean the drawer.
Send the email.
Make the appointment.
Fill out the application.
Take the walk.
Open the book.
Start the business plan.
Have the conversation.
Take the first step.
You don’t have to finish today.
You just have to begin.
Because your brain may be telling you it will take longer than it actually will.
And even if it does take a while…
you’ll be further along than you are today.
Until the next note,
Your Resident Overthinker