The Case for Thinking Less

Jun 24, 2026

“Trying to think your way out of overthinking is like trying to sniff your way out of a cocaine addiction.” – George Mack

Everyone from Epictetus to Sam Harris has espoused the flow of Thoughts first, Feelings Next, Action last.

Think the thoughts we wish to have, to help manifest the emotional state and feelings we desire which in turn drives the actions that reinforce the wheel.

But is there a case to be made for turning that wisdom on its head?

From Stanford Professors such as Dr Andrew Huberman, to outlier athletes such as the self-proclaimed (potentially justifiably so) ‘hardest man on the planet’, David Goggins, there is a path to a viable argument of improving our thinking by prioritising it last.

But Think-Feel-Do makes sense, doesn’t it?

Intellectually we understand that this process should work.

But what happens when the first step of the process is also the very problem you’re trying to solve?

What do you do when thinking (or over-thinking) is your problem?

What if the problem you’re trying to solve is not a logical one but an emotional one?

“You can’t control the mind with the mind, you have to use the body” – Dr Andrew Huberman.

We can think out way out of logical problems, but we can’t always think our way out of emotional ones.

Much as we would like to, that’s simply not how any of this works.

And given that a great deal of our day-to-day issues are fundamentally emotional ones – we’re stuck with a process and toolkit that will not only fail to get us a resolution but will fundamentally not even let us start. In fact, just the act of trying to think your way out may compound what you’re trying to solve in the first place.

How do I get my mind to behave itself and start getting onboard with providing some solutions rather than simply adding fuel to the fire?

Well, you can try to control the mind with the mind – that looks a lot like internal negotiations, trying to ‘not think about it’ (don’t picture a pink elephant…oops too late), or flat out just ignoring it all together. None of which are viable solutions, they’re intellectual band-aids at best.

So how do we arrive at better ‘thinking’, get to a healthy and more useful outcome? Ironically most of the modern wisdom around how to do that is based on utilising action.

Meditation, cold plunge, nootropics, sunlight, exercise. All of these are designed to do one thing – to leverage biological systems to impact cerebral ones. They are still based in utilising action – sparking endogenous change via exogenous means to then impact how we feel, in turn leaving space for clearer and more effective thought.

Modern wisdom is THINK -----> FEEL ----> DO

But you’re hardwired to DO ---> FEEL ----> THINK

Every had a difficult phone call? A complex or emotionally charged matter? Do you take the entire call, seated at your desk, sipping oolong tea? Or are you up and about, pacing and walking the room, gesticulating like a frustrated Italian.

Ever struggled with a complex problem, beat your head against the wall or desk for hours and then ten minutes into a run or a shower suddenly the answer arrives seemingly out of nowhere?

Your autonomic nervous system was taking control to help get your mind in the right place.

Movement, increased respiration, improved circulation, field of vision changes. You needed to figuratively relocate your mind - and your body kicked up a gear to facilitate exactly that.

“I just wish I could get my brain to be where my feet are – and do that ten times a day” – Chris Williamson

In a recent podcast Dr Andrew Huberman was explaining why he feels that David Goggins knows something that very few other people do. Not only that, but that David has internalised the knowledge and could express it as a process that allows him to excel to a point of becoming an outlier amongst outliers in the realm of human performance.

The summary was basically thus; feelings and emotions are complicated. So rather than trying to navigate and unravel all of those, Goggins simply goes straight to action. He utilises behaviour as the modifier.

That isn’t to say he abdicates thinking entirely – far from it. The argument is that he is using action/behaviour to modify how he feels and his sensations. Leveraging natural systems – hardwired autonomic responses to drive a change in his perception and focus.

From that point he can then work back up the stack to change his thinking. Action to influence feelings to drive thinking.

Goggins is an extreme outlier so bringing it back to something tangible for us normal folks. That bias into action does not have to be brutal and cataclysmic. It can be as simple as breathwork, movement, heart rate, circulation.

You were built to move, so move.

And these are universal tools.

You don’t need to have a journal and stylus handy. You don’t need a quiet space and time alone or your noise cancelling headphones and meditation app.

Get up and move, change your breathing, your line of sight and depth of field. Get your heart rate up.

Universal tools solve multitudes of problems – that’s why they are universal.

DO ---> FEEL ----> THINK

There’s less traffic going this way – everyone else is still trying to think their way out of a mental straitjacket – you’re already on the move and making impact up the entire chain.

Your system is preloaded and hardwired to operate in this direction by default.

If you want to modify our thoughts – right in the moment – put your mind into some discomfort. Give it a focus and task in the immediate that requires attention.

When your mind isn’t where you want it to be – use your body to move it.

In the spirit of the thoughts above, here’s a reminder that you can just go do the thing.