Are You Thinking Too Much to Hear Yourself?
Have you ever noticed that the harder you think about something, the less clear it becomes?
In this episode, I explore the difference between overthinking and intuition. Not the mystical stuff, but that quiet inner knowing that often gets drowned out by endless analysing, making lists, asking everyone else’s opinion and searching for certainty that never quite arrives.
I share two personal stories. One where I ignored my intuition and paid the price, and another where I listened to a small inner nudge that completely changed the direction of my life.
Together we’ll explore why overthinking feels productive but often keeps us stuck, how intuition tends to whisper rather than shout, and why clarity comes more from listening than thinking harder.
There’s also a simple reflective process to help you quieten the noise, reconnect with your own inner guidance and discover the next small step that feels right for you.
Because maybe the answer isn’t something you need to figure out.
Maybe it’s something you already know.
In This Episode
- Why overthinking often creates more confusion than clarity
- The hidden cost of needing certainty before taking action
- How intuition feels different from analysis
- My narrowboat lesson and what it taught me about ignoring inner guidance
- The small decision that led me into hypnosis over 26 years ago
- A simple process to help you listen beyond the mental noise
- Why the next right step is usually smaller than you think
- Learning to trust yourself a little more
Questions to Reflect On
- Where am I overthinking instead of listening?
- What has my intuition already been trying to tell me?
- What does “quietly right” feel like?
- What’s the next small step that feels right enough?
- What would change if I trusted myself more?
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Paul
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And the transcript WARNING if you’re a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry – you have been warned – is it an ‘ism
Intuition versus overthinking. Are you thinking too much to hear yourself? It’s a deep title, isn’t it? Oh, by the way, welcome to the Personal Development Unplugged podcast with me, Paul. I’m going to support your dreams.
And sometimes we think too much, don’t we? See, have you ever noticed the more you think about something, the less clear it gets? You can go round and think about all the pros, think about all the cons, because there’s so many of them. And you get even more pros. And then you can think of even more cons because of the more pros.
And guess what? You end up exactly where you started. Yeah? Completely where you started. And then guess what? You tend to think, oh, I better think some more, because I haven’t got enough.
And that is the problem. Here’s maybe something to think about. What if? What if you’re not stuck because you don’t know, but because you are thinking too much? But there’s an add-on to that sentence.
Because you’re thinking too much to hear what you already know. That’s weird, isn’t it? You see, sometimes you don’t know that you know. You just don’t know it, but you do know, and we get in the way.
You see, let’s have a think. What do we do when we have this looping experience? We’re going to make some lists, aren’t we? When we’re thinking, get all the lists out, get all our options. You probably even go and ask other people to find out what they want.
And guess what? We feel really busy, don’t we? We feel like we’re doing something, but getting nowhere. And I think that’s mistaking. Mistaking thinking as getting somewhere.
Now, thinking is good. Don’t get me wrong. You need a bit of thought.
But how much if we’re getting in the way? You see, even that thought, am I doing the right thing? Because I’ve been there. Does that resonate with you just a little bit? You know, it feels like we’re doing something. I’m working on this thing, doesn’t it? And it does feel productive.
It does feel just a little bit clever. But in the end of the day, we’re just spinning, aren’t we? We’re just spinning. You see, I think overthinking is just loud.
Everything going on is urgent. It’s a bit frantic. But intuition is quiet.
It’s simple. It’s actually almost too simple. But as we say with old Mr. Einstein, in simplicity, there’s genius.
See, I can remember a long, long time ago when I had the opportunity to buy a narrowboat, a canal boat. It was something that I think I wanted, I thought. And I finally had an opportunity to get into the purchase of one.
And what would normally have been that quick a decision, because everyone kept saying, Well, this is what you wanted, Paul. This is what you wanted, Cloughie. Go out and do it.
But I couldn’t make that decision. I really couldn’t. And it took days and days, what should have been minutes, maybe hours, but certainly days and days.
And I had this feeling, I had this really weird feeling about it, which I kept pushing aside. And do you know what? It was the worst bloody decision I ever made. Because initially it was okay, but then it just went worse and worse.
And all I ended up with was bloody regret and all the things that came from it. I wasn’t listening. I didn’t listen to that feeling.
I pushed it away. But then there’s something else that I did. My journey, my hypnosis journey, way back 26 years ago.
Going to learn hypnosis for reasons I didn’t really know, because I didn’t realise it was my path to NLP and everything else. But hypnosis was just a stepping stone. I didn’t really want to be there, do it, didn’t understand it.
I just wanted to get on to NLP. But when I got there, something felt different. And I listened to it.
It was like giving me a little nudge, saying, I know this isn’t what you thought it was, but I think it’s something that’s really good. And what happened? Well, 26 years later, I’m here talking to you. And I’ve done hypnosis, NLP, masterpractice NLP, timeline therapy, trainer of NLP, trainer of hypnosis, hypnotherapy.
What a bloody thing from that little nudge. And the thing is, same bloody person. Same brain up here.
The difference? I listened. I listened with all my senses. I listened to me.
And that’s the difference. You see, here’s the thing. Really, we’re not trying to find an answer.
We’re trying to hear it. You see, you’ve got a multitude of experiences, learnings, wisdom. You’ve been here a long time.
However long it is, it could seem a long time. But we want to hear it. We want to expand it.
You see, the answers you’re looking for are already formed. They’re in your unconscious mind. They’re processing right now.
And when you start to overthink and impose this conscious bit, it’s interference. It’s mucking up the signal. There’s no clarity.
You know what? Sometimes I say to myself, get the fuck out of your way, Cloughie. Get out of the way. Let the real you do the work it’s here for.
You see, overthinking is an intelligence. It’s just trying to, I don’t know, control the uncertainty. And no one likes uncertainty, but you need a little bit of uncertainty.
Because if you were certain about everything, it would be a flatline, boring, bloody life, wouldn’t it? So we need a little bit of uncertainty. Because that’s where life begins, I think. And here’s the thing.
Here’s another thing, because I say here’s the thing quite a lot. And it’s the thing that no one tells you. The more you try to force the clarity, the further away it feels.
Because it’s your unconscious mind going, no, no. Listen to me. Get out of the way.
Let intuition, let those aha moments come. Until it feels right. You see, clarity doesn’t come from thinking harder.
It comes from listening better. Because that’s what you’ve got to do, listen better. You know, maybe we could think of quietening the noise so you can hear the signal.
Let’s take a moment. Let’s just take a moment. If it’s safe to do so.
If it’s okay. Maybe you could close your eyes, if it’s okay. I just want your attention, your focus attention on you.
Take away the distractions. And if you could do that. Again, providing it’s safe to do so.
Just bring to mind something you’ve been overthinking. Something you’ve been trying to solve. And then just notice all the noise around it.
Yeah, just all that noise. You see, if you were to label that. That’s called analyzing.
That’s called doubt, doubting. And you know, it’s that what if voice. Because a what if voice will take you on and on.
So let’s just imagine for a moment. Turning that volume. Turn the noise down.
And as the noise softens. Notice. What’s left? What feels right? Not logically.
But quietly right. Because that’s the signal. So listen with all your senses.
Here. Now. With that feeling.
Just tune into that feeling. You don’t have to plan the whole journey. One step at a time.
Just ask yourself inside. Knowing that nothing has to be perfect. Nothing’s guaranteed.
Everything is just right enough. What is? The first small step that feels right. That’s your question.
Just ask yourself. What’s the first step that feels right? Remember again. Not perfect.
Not guaranteed. Just right enough. And notice.
Notice that that step usually feels too simple. It’s almost too obvious. That’s right.
And you’re not committing to this forever. Because it’s just one small step. In the direction of the answer.
You see, because intuition doesn’t shout out the whole plan. It nudges you to the next step. There.
And open your eyes. Open your eyes. If you did, close them by the way.
And just ask yourself. Take a breath. Just have a look around.
So where’s overthinking right now in your life? Let’s have some examples. Is it a career decision? Is it creative ideas? Relationships? Starting something new? Because, you know, where have you already had a feeling maybe? But you’ve ignored it. Yeah? You’ve ignored it.
What are you waiting for? Certainty? Certainty never comes, does it? Not at all. It doesn’t. You see, maybe you’re not confused at all.
You’re not really. Because it’s just that you’re not listening. You see, I’m an options person.
And when I get an issue, I love to get as many options as I can. But that just brings worries. And then I try to mitigate those worries.
And then I go back and back until I stop. I’ve learned to listen now. Listen with those feelings and look for that one small step.
And you say, here’s the empowering bit. I believe you already know more than you think you do. Well, I know you know more than you think you do.
Because you don’t know what you know. Because you don’t know it, but you know it. Weird bit of conversation there.
You see, sometimes you just don’t need any more information. You actually need less interference. So instead of pushing, you can choose pause.
Choose to pause for a moment. Instead of trying to force it with that pause, choose to listen. And listen with all your senses.
Go inside and listen. Because sometimes you might get a memory. Sometimes you might get a word on the tip of your tongue.
You might get a feeling. All the words and the memories create that feeling. And all of a sudden, yeah.
And when you do that, things just start to feel easier, don’t they? They feel clearer. They really do. You see, when you start, and now I think this is one of the keys, trusting yourself.
When you trust yourself, life begins to change. But it changes in a very quiet, subtle way. But that quiet, subtle way is one of the most powerful ways.
You see, because when you do that, second-guessing disappears. You get more aligned with those decisions. Because why? Because it feels right.
You’re not just going to go directly on your feelings. You’ve got to have the information, but not too much. Enough.
And that creates a confidence in your competence without effort. And you see, when you do that, here’s the big win for everybody. Everyone around you, every other person around you, gets to feel it through you.
You become clearer. You become calmer because of that clarity, as it were. And then you can start to model the trust you have over the noise around you.
And it’s a little bit like the ripples. You never know how far the ripples of change will go, because they’re subtle. It’s only when you look back, you notice how far you’ve come.
You know, creating that wind of change, because you become that butterfly, flapping your wings gently with these wonderful steps and things you’re creating in life, and creating a wind of change. So what I’d like you to think about, just reflect on these, maybe. Maybe you get a notebook and just ask yourself, where am I overthinking instead of listening? Maybe you’ve already missed it.
So what has, here’s another question, what has my intuition already told me? Maybe you pushed it away a little bit. Let it come back. Don’t push, pause.
There’s another question, what does quietly right feel like to you? Maybe you can think back of times in the past when you did follow your intuition, and it was the most wonderful thing to do because you did it in small steps. The ones that go wrong, where we just feel it and do the big step. Now these are small, gentle steps because you’re really feeling that.
That wonderful question, what is the one small step I can take today? And you can enjoy the process. And if you did really trust yourself, what would change in your life even more? Yeah. So here we go.
Did that resonate with you? Did it? I’d love to know what came up for you. I really would. And maybe the quiet information you got, the steps.
Please let me know at feedback at personaldevelopmentunplugged.com. That’s my email address. I’m the only bugger here. Personal replies, all that stuff.
And I think so many people need this reminder that we can be confident in ourselves. So maybe if you could just share this episode with others, because you probably don’t know, but every other person is probably got their issue stuck in their head, in the loop. And let’s see if we can stop that and start making these wonderful decisions.
And I go back to mine, the one 26 years and still cracking it out, still enjoying every moment of it. Getting that buzz working with a client that changes right in front of my eyes. They do the work.
I do the steering, as it were, to guide them. That buzz has never left me. Seeing how wonderful and how quickly people can change from the most darkest, deepest things that they think will never, ever go.
And they can do it that quickly. And there’s so much more I want to share with you. So if you would just press that subscribe button, wherever it is on your listening device of choice, or the follow button.
You know the one. Just so you get all of these through. Some will resonate you more than others, I know.
Some you might think, that’s that old BS bug. But there’s always a golden nugget in these things if we look for them, listen for them. Set your intention to learn as you listen.
And remember, you drive your own bus. So set your sat-nav in the right direction, where you want to go. Set your intention.
Just listen to your internal sat-nav. Yeah? Because you don’t need to think harder. You just need to listen better.
That’s all it is. And maybe, maybe, just think of this. Give that overthinking brain of yours a bloody holiday.
Let it have a little rest. Yeah? Because that way you can have more fun than you can stand. Yay! Anyway, I’m going to see you next time.
Have more fun than you can stand. And it’s time to fly. I’ll see you now.
Warning, you are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It’s time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend.
Personal Development Unplugged.
Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited Feeling lost in life? Discover why you’re not truly lost, just disconnected from your inner direction. Learn how to reconnect with your future self, trust your intuition, and take the next meaningful step forward.