Your greatest enemy
Aragorn tells you all about how less is often more, especially when it comes to thinking.
Funny thing. Like many happening around hoomans. That’s why I enjoy being around them so much cause you never fail to find sources of either amusement or proof of your superiority. And both are pretty good feelings.
However, I’m not going to play the superiority card today, as I’m here to serve you, as it’s not your fault you were not born with the cat wisdom.
But back to the funny thing.
So my hooman is on the phone a lot. And sometimes she puts funny little things into her ears and then I can only hear what she says. On those occasions, I usually just carry on sleeping or simply minding my own business. But sometimes, I can hear the other voice too. Not surprisingly, in most cases it is that fella who came over for a visit around New Year‘s without our prior approval or invitation, might I add.
When I was just a kitten, I used to think there must be someone hidden behind the gadget that speaks and didn’t quite understand where the voices are coming from. I still don’t quite understand the technicalities of the hooman world and miracles like that, but I do understand now there is no intruder in my territory nor anyone hidden in the gadget (though I'm still not quite so sure about the latter - but how would anyone fit there?!). So it is safe to stay within earshot as sometimes these conversations can be pretty funny. Funny in the way how overly complicated hoomans make their lives…
Oftentimes the conversations are very similar and I’m not going to give away the details as they’re private conversations and my hooman surely wouldn’t be too pleased about that. But what I am going to tell you is that I noticed one recurring pattern. One, that I have a feeling you might be guilty of too.
The thing is, these two spend hours and hours talking about things over and over again before deciding to take some action or deciding on what is the CORRECT action to take.
The other day, I was pretty hungry when such a conversation occurred. Usually, I know I will be paid no attention in situations like these. But as they were going over and over that one thing, I couldn’t help the impatience in me to grow. So, I lay on the threshold with a slightly condemning look on my face in the hope, they’ll get the message.
And what is the message?
Stop overthinking everything so much!
From what I gather, these two want to be successful in their fields – whatever that means for each of them. But… if we cats thought about everything so much, we would never climb any tree or jump anywhere without less than the absolute ideal conditions.
Okay fine, you could have caught a glimpse of us thinking hard and looking up somewhere… but then… the jump always follows. Sometimes it takes a little longer if there are more obstacles in the way or the angle is a bit challenging. And that’s okay. We all try to do our best to not fail. But we do the calculation once. And then jump. What we don’t include in the calculation is thinking about all the other possibilities or all the ways things could go wrong.
We just focus on one target, the desired outcome, and the most obvious way to accomplish it. And then act. No distractions. No hesitating. If we cats hesitated, we would never get anywhere. Cause there are three main enemies of a clear, elegant jump of a cat: hesitation, self-doubt, and overthinking.
Overthinking plants seeds of self-doubt and self-doubt makes you hesitate. And in such a state, you can never achieve your smooth landing. That would be soooo dangerous in fact, that I don’t even dare to imagine it.
And yes, sometimes I decide to rather not jump. Or I find an easier way to get where I want to be. But the point is, I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. We cats much rather act. And if anything, learn from experience. And if we scramble up rather than fly sometimes next time, we’ll do better. And we save so much time for all the other attempts if necessary, that either way, we'll reach our goal much quicker. Cause experience is always better. And most of the time, you will fly.
So yeah, try to think less. I know it may sound very counterintuitive to you, but believe me – as with many other things, less is sometimes more.
So are you ready to fly?