Which Property Strategy should you use? What are the risks? How quickly will you reach your goals? What do I NOT know? Where do I start? Is the government going to ruin everything? What about tax? Will this actually create social good? Is that really what I want?!

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all been here at some point – feelings of Analysis Paralysis that are symptomatic of not knowing the WAY you are going to achieve something.

Why do we experience Analysis Paralysis? Well I think there are a few main reasons;

The Pursuit of Perfection. The pressure to make the “perfect” choice can backfire. We get bogged down in endless research, worried about missing the best option. Whilst ironically, this delay is causing you to miss out on opportunities.

Choice Overload. There are many, many different ways to make Property work for you. In today’s world, we’re bombarded with options. From careers to coffee flavours, too many choices can lead to decision fatigue and inaction. To start out, just know that basically all property strategies will work, the question is – do they work for you? Be honest with yourself about your tastes, time-available per week, starting point financially and time period that you want to achieve your goals by.

Fear of Failure: The dread of making a mistake can stop us in our tracks. We overthink potential downsides, forgetting that even “wrong” choices offer valuable lessons.

So, how to break free? Recognise the signs, set realistic goals, and trust your gut! “Good enough today” is truly better than a perfection which never arrives. I made choices in my early Property days which I wouldn’t make if I’d started again. But the point is that I started and learned from those.

What can we do to stop it?

Decide on your goal! Where do you want to get to? At what point would you stop? If you don’t know your end point, it’s hard, if not impossible, to know how to get there. You’ll work out the middle bit (how) as time passes, and our minds have an amazing ability to improvise a way to any goal. But you need a goal in the first place!

Timebox it. Set a deadline for research or brainstorming. Deadlines create focus and prevent endless loops. Choose a general way (or at least a very small list of ways) that you’ll entertain, and then work on this / these.

Embrace “Good Enough”. Not every decision needs a Ph.D. Aim for “good enough” for smaller choices, freeing up energy for big ones.

Flip the coin. Feeling torn? Assign a yes/no action to heads/tails. It sparks intuition and often reveals your true preference.

Embrace the incremental approach. Make incremental, consistent steps towards your goals. This will satisfy both your risk appetite as you go along, and also allow you opportunity to reverse or steer from/to a different approach as you learn day by day.

Married2Property are a family-run property company that aims to create social good through property.

These articles are written by Darren de Wal based on his 12 years of experience as an active Property Investor, and 16 years getting to a senior leadership position as an Officer in the Royal Air Force. They are for the benefit of those with a general interest in Property, as well as those wishing to start out investing themselves.