Now that we have at least explored other options

Intellectualizing and imagining are enjoyable, useful, satisfying and rewarding activities.

Sometimes there’s nothing better than disappearing inside your head and creating a world where you’re in control of everything. It’s one of the purest forms of freedom human beings can have.

But extremes in anything accomplish nothing. And if we spend too much time lost in an infinite regression of overthinking, we miss out on life.

Our inner thoughts can scandalize us, and in many cases, negatively impact others.

My former coworker was the kind of person who preferred to endlessly debate ideas, rather than aggressively act on them. Robert was good at it, too. His rhetorical and analytical powers were impressive, and his ability to deconstruct almost anything led to some fascinating philosophical discussions.

He made the days more interesting, for which we were all grateful.

The challenge was, he didn’t know when let up. Robert worked over every idea within an inch of its life. Like a train hobo with a chicken bone, he would do an absurd amount of work just to flesh out absolute foolishness.

And many times, it was a gross misuse of energy. This one afternoon, he spent close to an hour trying to find a better song to play in the background of our new customer testimonial video.

Which, by the way, was already edited and ready to go live. But he insisted that we could do better.

Now, part of me wanted to grab him by the collar, jab him in the ribcage with a box cutter and knock some sense into him.

But I just let him do his thing. Rob ultimately came back to the group later that afternoon with a potential song he really liked.

And to his credit, the song was great. It would have been, say, a fifteen percent improvement on the original. It also would have cost us five hundred dollars to license.

To which I immediately responded with a hard no.

Robert ultimately gave up his search for the perfect song, told us to forget about it and just keep the original. But not without disclaiming that he felt better about leaving the song as is, now that he had at least explored other options.

Now, to me, that last part was the downfall. Feeling better for having explored other options.

I’m sorry, other options are the last thing we need in the final mile of a project. They only delay the creative process and add an unnecessary layer of effort and anxiety to a problem that doesn’t need to be solved in the first place.

I understand that complexity is attractive because it feels like progress. And I understand that the fear of missing out is very real thing in many people’s lives.

But do we honestly think it’s worth one person feeling better if five people feel worse? Is that really considerate of the team?

This is where overthinking gets us in trouble. Not only is it a gross misuse of our own time and energy, but it drives everyone else crazy.

Look, if you want to intellectualize and imagine to your heart’s delight, please do so. It’s part of what makes life bearable.

But as creative professionals, the only real way to figure something out is to start doing real work. To get our hands dirty and let the process teach us.

Our focus should be on aggressively acting on our ideas, not endlessly debating them.

What have you already spent way too much time on today?