3 Tips To Stop Overthinking When Creating Your Online Program
Does this sound familiar? You sit down to create something and before you know it, your brain is going: what if people don't like this? What content is good or not good enough? Is this just a really stupid idea? The overthinking analysis-paralysis loop of doom is something that affects alllll of us (I even overthought this post!), so today I'm going to share three tips to help you break free of the overthinking trap and really start to create your program with intention.
We've all experienced overthinking at some point. Especially as heart centered entrepreneurs, it's part of daily life for us - we sit down to create something, we start writing it out and before we know it, our brain is just a runaway train going is this what my people need? Is this good enough? Can I share this?
Not only does overthinking totally slow down your creative process and eat away at your confidence, but it also distracts from your ability to actually start putting something out there with the world. One of my biz besties said to me - when we keep things trapped in our head where they're safe from the overthinking and safe from the judgment, they may be 100% perfect, but they're not helping anyone.
It's time to stop overthinking and step into confidence. That's why I've put together three quick tips for challenging overthinking when you're creating an online program, so you can get out of your head and start changing lives.
Tip #1: Recognize where it comes from
Tip number one is recognizing that the overthinking is coming from a really important place: it's coming from a place of love. Now, it may seem like it's coming from a place of fear, that I'm not good enough or my work isn't enough, will they even like this? The reality is that this anxiety comes because we care so much about giving our people an incredible experience. We want to set them up for success. We want to give them everything they need, and make sure they feel a hundred percent supported along the way.
Stop and ask yourself: what is my intention here?
When you're dealing with overthinking, stop and ask yourself, what is my intention here? What do I really care about? What is truly important to me? Probably the answer that's going to come up is something along the lines of I'm committed to giving my people the best experience possible. I'm committed from a place of love to designing something amazing for my people.
The next time the overthinking starts, that's where I really want you to realign with your intention of giving your people an amazing experience and remind yourself of two things:
They're going to love it because you've designed from a place of intention and heart
If for some reason something's not working, because you've designed it with intention and are showing up from a heart-centred space, you will hear what they need and course-correct as necessary
Overthinking can be part of the creative process when you care so much about your people's experience, which is why it's important to recognize that when you show up from this place of love, from this place of caring, you’re going to give your people the best experience because that's your intention.
Tip #2: Ground yourself using a goal statement
The next tip that I have (which is related to intentions) is creating a goal statement for your program.
When you craft a goal statement for your program, it's a tangible external outcome that you want to create for your people. A goal statement captures the transformation you are providing for them through your learning experience.
Your goal statement is your lighthouse
When you're in that spiral of what should I include or what content should I not include? How much content is the right amount of content? Will this get results? Your goal statement is your lighthouse in that storm of thoughts. You can always come back and ask yourself, what was my intention in creating this program? What is the goal that I want to offer my people? What is the goal that I want to get them to?
Whatever you're overthinking at that moment, ask yourself is this directly related to getting my people to the goal that I have set out for my online program? Is this going to help them take action to get to the transformation that I have set out for them?
Tip #3: Remember that you aren't alone!
The third tip that I have for dealing with overthinking when you are creating your online program is to remember that you are not alone. We all deal with overthinking. Do you know how much overthinking I had about this post alone?! We all do it.
The best way to help with overthinking is to get support
Support comes in all shapes and sizes - whether that's chatting directly to your people that you're creating for, or talking to a peer and asking them their opinion, or bringing in someone like a learning designer (cough cough oh hi!) who is there to help you build your program.
For instance, my role is to make sure that we're building something that sets your people up for success. If you're overthinking something like does this content support my people? Does this activity get them results? it's my job to be an objective third party to say, yeah, that's awesome or no, let's save that for later.
(NOTE: the caveat that I want to say when getting extra support is to make sure that they are either super aware of the people you're building for, or they are part of the demographic you're building for. Sometimes when we start asking people's opinions that don't understand what we do, or they don't understand what we're building, or they're just so far away from our target market, it can actually make the brainstorm spiral even worse.)
Whenever you're in the overthinking spiral, remember you're not alone. There are people here to help pull you out and can talk things through with you, but ultimately you have all the answers that you need inside you.
One final thought
When you're building an online program, the most important thing is to remember that this happens to everyone. It is part of the creative process and if you feel like you are really trapped in the overthinking spiral, then take a little bit of a break, step away from it. Think about what you can do to give yourself some open space so that you can really give yourself a little bit of time to process what you're thinking about.
If you're totally stuck (especially with your online program), I am here to help you! I love talking about these things and I can totally relate because the overthinking struggle, it's real! Sign up for the Course Cafe - a free live call on Zoom I host where I answer all of your course creation questions!