One of the things that causes flashbulb memories is “the degree to which the memory of the event is rehearsed, i.e., how often are people likely to recall the event?”7 That’s overthinking’s favorite jam. Can you imagine something you rehearse more than the negative soundtracks in your head? That’s what overthinking does. It finds a negative

“My predictions are positive.” If I’m going to predict the future, I might as well pick a positive one.

“This [3 to 1] is the ratio I’ve found to be the tipping point, predicting whether people languish or flourish.”

Explore what works for you without making disclaimers. Don’t judge a turn-down technique before you test it in your own life.

Your brain builds on overthinking’s habit of negativity by doing three additional things: Lying about your memories Confusing fake trauma with real trauma Believing what it already believes

As retired Navy SEAL David Goggins says, “The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them and eventually you learn to act on them. Whether they be good or bad.”2

Well, have you ever had an idea and then determined it wouldn’t work, even before you wrote it down? As in, the idea didn’t even make it to a piece of paper or a note in your phone before you self-edited it? You should be nodding your head right now, because everyone has done that. That’s a broken soundtrack because every idea is worthy of at least

Overthinking steals time, creativity, and productivity by making you listen to broken soundtracks. Do you know what happens when you listen to new ones? You give your dreams more time, creativity, and productivity. Not just a little—buckets.

And predicting a negative future for myself and other people didn’t feel very good. I never walked away from that conversation and thought, “I hope I’ve properly discouraged that person.” It felt gross, and it wasn’t even accurate.