Analysis Paralysis

Analysis Paralysis refers to when an individual over-thinks a situation, so-much so that the individual never actually ends up making a decision. This effect is what is known as analysis paralysis.

A person who experiences analysis paralysis won't make a decision and then change it if a major obstacle of difficulty arises, like other people would, instead they want to make the optimal choice, the 'perfect solution'.

It seems when a this person tries to make a decision, they are overwhelmed with the amount of analysis they have to, or feel they have to do. Then the benefits of the outcome of the decision no longer out-way the effort that they feel is needed to analyse the decision-factors. So you are probably starting to see why a person who suffers with analysis paralysis will find it difficult to make a decision.

Sometimes the process of decision-making can be too tough for the decision-maker, and because of the amount of options that they are faced with, they are overwhelmed and are not capable of making a rational, logical decision. 

One of Aesop's fables touched upon analysis paralysis, even if it wasn't known as that back-then. 'The fox and the cat'. The fox boasted about the amount of escape routes he had, while the cat only had one sure way of escape in the event of danger. One day both the fox and the cat heard the hounds heading their way. The cat escaped up a tree, but the fox was busy deliberating about the best escape, in the act of doing so - was caught. The moral was; better to have one sure way, rather than a hundred ways you cannot be sure.

Analysis paralysis is something that can happen to anyone, but is more likely to happen to the more indecisive or reluctant people. It can happen to others though. I myself am not the most decisive person, but am trying to get better at it. However, I don't think I've experienced analysis paralysis, well, not on a regular basis anyway. :)

Analysis paralysis can border on O.C.D and can become an incredibly hard habit for a person to stop. A person who has analysis paralysis can't be reasoned to stop the habit, as they think in a different way, so to try to get them to stop being particularly over-analytical will seem un-rational to them. This person will normally be quite intellectual and therefore, will think quite intellectually. The more they do though, the more processes they may think-up to analyse, but the more processes there is, the more likely they are to become overwhelmed, ending-up not making a decision. 

You will need to try and stop them from planning and analysing decisions, which is what IS a logical thing to do and in other posts of mine, I have stressed why it is the right thing to do to think and analyse a decision before you make it, however, for a person who suffers from analysis paralysis, they need to avoid doing this to help them to get out of the habit.

Also an over-analyser might not even be aware that they experience analysis paralysis. To them, they just don't have the right decision to go with and so just don't go with one, thinking themselves to being optimal in their actions.

This post was meant to be about what analysis paralysis is, maybe in the future I will come back to this subject and write about some ways people can get around this particular problem. The closest related post I have written to that would be; how to become more decisive. 

I meant to post this two days ago, but because of hay-fever and a bit of a mild cold, I didn't feel like doing so. Got some medication for them though, so it's all good...or better than it was at least. :)