Analysis paralysis

We’ve all been there before … you’re about to go out with a friend that you haven’t seen in a while when suddenly you recall you have a massive project due tomorrow. You begin to brainstorm ways you can still do both, you even spend time writing it all out. Just when you come to make a decision, your relative calls to ask you why you are late to the wedding rehearsal!  

Total panic and chaos, right? So, what do you do?

You end up doing none of the above. Instead you sit there with your heart sunk into your stomach and your mind short-circuiting like a firework!

This is what I like to call Analysis Paralysis, where you think so much about all the things you need or want to do that you end up just … paralysed. Still.

It is no surprise then that it happens all the more with our faith. Prayer can be hard, going to Mass might not even cross our minds – or trying to establish some faith and social life balance.

A close friend of mine mentioned a quote at the start of Lent to me by Venerable Fulton Sheen:

“If you wish to deal with a serious sin pray the rosary. One of two things will happen. You will either give up the sin or give up the rosary”. 

Now I am not saying that being in a chaotic predicament is sinful; but when I look back on the times where I would overanalyse a situation it usually emanated from a place where prayer was lacking. And so, this quote, especially during Lent, helped inspire me to pray more and thus assert a greater level of control over my decisions.

Just know that Analysis Paralysis happens more often than we can deny. It wouldn’t hurt to have a compass of prayer to recalibrate our voyages. Just as with any voyage a steady ship will keep its course.

Perhaps you will never know the strength of your anchor till you feel the … [storm] analysis paralysis?

Jean-Claude Attieh is your regular Nutella loving, sports watching, tabouli eating gentle giant! Beginning his time at ACU Campus Ministry in July 2019, Jean-Claude is never shy to make an impression or share his Lebanese Maronite culture with all who cross his path. “Christ is in each and every person I meet, so why should I not be His hands and feet. Christ loved us first, and that is why I am called to show the same”.