7 reasons it’s actually good to be an overthinker

While overthinking can be a negative experience, there are actually some good things about being an overthinker.

I should know. I’ve been a chronic overthinker my whole life.

Overthinking has become an issue for me when I’ve tried to stop doing it.

Telling yourself to stop overthinking is like trying to push water uphill. The monkey mind just continues to chatter like water flowing through your hands.

Instead, I’ve found that focusing on the benefits of being an overthinker helps to keep things in check.

It turns my overthinking into a strength.

Because overthinking has brought many wonderful things to my life.

For example:

1. Attention to detail

Not much escapes the attention of overthinkers.

We’re meticulous and pay close attention to details.

This is a real asset when it comes to problem-solving. In my work life, I excel when we have challenges to face. I’m happy to call a meeting to analyze what went wrong and how we can do things better next time.

I notice things that many people miss. Attention to detail is a genuine strength of overthinkers.

The challenge:

The challenge comes when overthinkers get overwhelmed with the details.

We can easily make the mistake of wanting everything to be just right, becoming painfully aware of what can go wrong.

What we need to do is maintain our focus on the details, turning this focus into a strength, while making sure we continue to move forward and take action even when feeling a little overwhelmed.

But overthinking can definitely get challenging with this next possible benefit…

2. Better self-awareness

Being an overthinker isn’t just about thinking all the time. We also think about the thoughts we’re having.

This can result in greater self-awareness.

The reason for this is simple.

When we think about the thoughts we’re having, we tend to reflect on the reasons behind them.

We analyze where our thoughts come from. Why we’re having them.

This gives us the opportunity to improve our mindsets and grow at an individual level.

The challenge:

The challenge for an overthinker of getting too focused on better self-awareness is that it can lead to excessive self-criticism and negative self-talk.

This used to be the case for me when I first started my self-improvement journey.

I became fixated on my perceived flaws and mistakes. It resulted in a distorted view of myself.

Instead, I had to learn to be kind to myself and accept my flaws. This helped me to stop ruminating so much.

And this helped me to improve my critical thinking…

3. Improved critical thinking

When an overthinker approaches a problem, they usually consider all possible outcomes, weighing up the pros and cons of each.

This can come across as excessive thinking but it serves a very valuable person.

It means we can make more informed decisions and consider all aspects of a situation before moving forward. This resulted in more effective and long-lasting solutions.

While overthinking can be stressful at times, one of the benefits is that it improves critical thinking and enables us to come up with solutions to very complex problems.

The challenge:

When it comes to making decisions, overthinkers can second-guess themselves and over-complicate things.

This can lead to a lack of confidence, makes us stuck in analysis paralysis.

The antidote to analysis paralysis is to continually emphasize taking action. We need to make taking action a habit, even when we’re overanalyzing things.

This will result in a healthy balance between thorough analysis and decisive action.

4. Increased creativity

Overthinking can lead to a more imaginative and creative approach to problem-solving as it can result in thinking out-of-the-box.

When we ruminate, our imagination wanders. We consider many alternative solutions to our problems.

At our best, as overthinkers we’re not limited to conventional thinking. We consider many possibilities and develop an imaginative approach to life in general.

The challenge:

As an overthinker, I’ve found meditation to be a really useful tool to improve my creativity.

This has helped me to accept that my mind is a whirlwind of thoughts. I can detach from these thoughts which allows my mind to wander even more.

Because I’m not so attached to these thoughts. I’m more able to recognize when good ideas emerge. I can pounce on these ideas and take action.

If you’re an overthinker and struggle to meditate, watch my overview of how to meditate below. It’s one of the earliest videos I ever created and shares a unique approach to meditation that works well for overthinkers.

5. Empathy

Overthinkers tend to be empathetic and consider the feelings of others.

We’re able to imagine ourselves in the shoes of others. We can understand where people are coming from.

This helps us to build strong relationships and communicate more effectively.

The challenge:

One of the challenges of being empathetic is that we can easily become overwhelmed by the emotions of others.

This can lead to the tendency to internalize other people’s feelings, resulting in increased stress and anxiety.

This becomes especially the case when overthinkers struggle to set boundaries.

To overcome this challenge, it’s important for overthinkers to learn how to set effective boundaries.

But here’s the thing.

Setting boundaries isn’t just about communicating to others what’s acceptable and what isn’t. It’s also about setting boundaries with ourselves.

We need to understand when it’s appropriate to care deeply about the emotions of others and when we’re overdoing it.

An effective strategy to overcome this challenge is to take some time out every day for self-care and self-reflection. I do this every morning with an exercise and meditation routine.

6. Highly prepared

There’s not much that surprises an overthinker!

Want to know why?

Because we’ve already imagined this possibility happening!

We’ve spent time considering the possibilities already.

This makes us prepared for pretty much any eventuality.

The challenge:

It’s great to be prepared.

But we need to avoid being hyper-vigilant.

This can result in trying to control our environments, leaving little room for spontaneity to emerge.

Overthinkers can’t help but think of all the possible scenarios for what may happen.

But we need to let go a little bit and leave some room for being surprised.

7. Improved communication skills

Overthinkers often have very effective communication skills.

This is because we think through what we want to say and how we want to say it.

This leads to more empathetic communication, because we’re able to understand and consider the perspectives of others.

For me, this is a real strength and something I cherish. I appreciate being methodical in my speech and being able to clearly articulate my thoughts and ideas.

The challenge:

The challenge of having improved communication skills as a result of being an overthinker is in finding a balance between thoughtful communication and decisive communication.

We can easily get too wrapped up in what we want to say and wanting to say it in an eloquent way.

Instead, as overthinkers we need to appreciate how articulate we can be while avoiding the tendency to overthink our communication.

The way to meet this challenge head-on is to do something a little bit different.

We need to practice our active listening.

This stops us from focusing too heavily on our own speech patterns and shifts our attention to others.

It helps us to embrace another one of the benefits of overthinking which is to be a highly empathic person.

Closing thoughts

Overthinking can be a blessing or a curse.

It’s a curse when we become overly critical of ourselves.

Instead, we need to stop trying to change our overthinking tendencies and start to embrace the benefits.

This will help us to turn our overthinking tendencies into one of our superpowers.