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Act Before You overThink

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Are you an Overthinker?

Too clever for your own good? Unable to make a decision even after over analysing data in enormous spreadsheets? Feeling stuck and anxious imagining countless what-if scenarios?

Act Before You overThink, to free your mind, skyrocket your productivity and improve your well-being.

Based on more than 365 interviews with overthinkers, Lison Mage uncovers and debunks the three myths of overthinking that hold you back from reaching your full potential, in your career and relationships.

Backing up her findings with psychological studies and behavioural sciences, Act Before You overThink offers practical strategies and tools addressing the different types of overthinking, to break free from stress, self-doubt and perfectionism.

You will learn how to:
Gain control over your deepest fears and show up as your most empowered self,
Balance thinking and doing, setting you on a path to greater joy and purpose,
Build confidence and decisiveness when facing complex choices

Don’t wait any longer to get out of your own way! It’s time to liberate your mind, improve your decisions, and gift the world your best self.

220 pages, Paperback

Published April 20, 2022

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About the author

Lison Mage

2 books2 followers

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
4 reviews
August 24, 2022
This book is aimed at helping people overcome the tendency to overthink when making decisions. The author, Lison Mage, is a therapist and has conducted interviews with a number of people plagued by the effects of overthinking. In the book she discusses some strategies that might be helpful in overcoming it. What is overthinking? That’s a commonly used term but hard to define precisely. I tend to think of it as ruminating, obsessing, worrying, or delaying decisions. In one place Mage says it’s “maladaptive thinking,” which I take to mean thinking in an ineffective way. She also says overthinking is an excess of thinking - in other words, thinking about the wrong things when trying to make a decision, or thinking too long about the right things, i.e. beyond the amount needed.

The book is organized around 3 common beliefs about overthinking that Mage tries to show are false. They are that overthinking helps with decision-making, that overthinking doesn’t hurt in the end, and that overthinking is unavoidable. Part of Mage’s approach is to discredit these beliefs as false and help readers take a more rational perspective on decision-making. Each of the chapters about each of these false beliefs include illustrative stories and also her explanations of why the common beliefs aren’t true.

This is a good topic for a book and it kept me interested as I read through it. The writing in places becomes elliptical though. It’s a little hard at times to see where the discussion is going. Organization within the chapters is not clear. And even at the sentence level Mage, at times, states her points more weakly and indirectly than she might. Fortunately, helpful bulleted summaries are included at the end of each chapter. I had to rely on those to figure out what I’d been reading after I’d finished a chapter and will return to those to review the book when I go back to it.

The most helpful part of the book for me was Mage’s final discussion about using personal values to help with decision making and short cut the process of overthinking. Here I was able to see how prioritizing outcomes in relation to values could certainly be helpful. I suspect overthinking itself is a sign of confusion about the priority of one’s values.

As I went through the book I highlighted some interesting statements in the text that struck me as insightful, and in the end it’s these statements, and the bulleted chapter summary points, that I want to refer to again.

Mage markets follow-up counseling with her through links in the text.
Profile Image for Christi.
1,174 reviews37 followers
September 30, 2022
“Over thinking kidnaps and kills dreams, only leaving us with regrets.“ No truer words were spoken, especially where I’m concerned.

I have always considered myself an over thinker. I always thought this was a trait that was ingrained in my DNA, as unescapable as my eye color, but after reading this book I am seeing my over thinking as an illness to which I might have found a cure.

The subject matter isn’t too heavy, though ironically I did catch myself overthinking, even when trying to read! The overall layout is pleasing, and it was very easy to go back and reference parts that speak to you. There are two sections at the end of each chapter: Key Takeaways and How to, that really help drive the main points of each chapter home, while also giving the reader applicable questions to ask themselves, helping to dig deeper, and find out more about their over thinking.

For a nonfiction I found the writing quite engaging, the use of relatable examples helping me to further engage, while also helping with my understanding of more complex topics and critical thinking. I am in the overthinking camp, and I found my self stopping and pondering myself, and a current situation I have been overthinking lately, and it has really helped me out off of the overthinking rollercoaster.

I was surprised how helpful this book was for me and what an enjoyable read it was!

*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I received from the author/publisher through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest, and my own.
Profile Image for Sara Barney.
292 reviews
May 17, 2022
I like how this book is laid out. The issue (overthinking) is identified and broken down with a problem presented with examples both real world and illustrative which is then followed up with a summary and how to implement some of the advice and techniques. In the next section the negative consequences of overthinking are presented with ways to identify and overcome some bad habits and coping mechanisms. Finally there is a process to deal with overthinking and the cost value and advice to streamline thinking and decision-making. This book was quick and straightforward that gave me something to think about, specifically my own habit of not making decisions very well or quickly. It’s nice to have tools to look back on and maybe use as decisions come up that I find myself mulling over and over.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Profile Image for Jodie Cary.
944 reviews7 followers
May 11, 2022
Act before you overthink. I enjoyed reading this book. I learnt a lot about myself and why I overthink things. Easy to read and to follow and learn.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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