How can I stop overdoing everything?

Maybe you are meant to find a venue where such traits are needed.
Ever thought of being involved with quality control somewhere?

I had the same problem with me, of overdoing things, getting too much into details, I still face it somehow.

How I recently have started handling it with my work is by diving my actions into smaller goals. Before starting anything I break my end result into small patches, reach them and after completing what I initially set, I re-visit it for additions. And yes I have started taking reviews from my friends and connections. It helps me validate my decision on where to stop.

For the art work, create a rough sketch, indicating the level of detail. Then stick to the plan.

Self control.

You know the problem – you have identified it above. Now it’s all about putting the steps into practice and that is completely internal and under your control. I don’t know that there is a magic elixir that tells your mind “simplify” – but that’s what you need to do.

Listen to what the rational part of your mind is saying.

You have entirely too much free time. Most of us have enough tedium and drudgery in our lives to counterbalance the demons afflicting you. How about a stint of dull, unfulfilling, repetitive, meaninglesss work for a change? That should put a damper on all that creativity. Besides, as a staunch conservative you must surely recognize by now that no opportunity must be missed to stifle idealism.

You’re a dreamer and artist, so perhaps you simply need a team to supporr you and help reign in your creativity.

As an action person, hand your idea to me to implement a realistic version. For papers or sermons, hand those off for a proofread by a practical mind to edit. Please dont let it all go to waste, this world kills dreams, and we need people like you to help make it a better place.

@Yellowdog: “And some ideas become more fantastical or even like fantasy…”

I’d like to see you keep fantasy out of your politics before you address your hobbies.

Do you enjoy the dreaming? Or, is it disappointing to you that you don’t accomplish all you dreamed? Some of the dreaming might lead to unknown places and ideas that might be great! I’m not sure how much you should quell it.

I do think maybe focus on one thing at a time more, to be able to follow that one thing through.

Lastly, if you achieve your goal of simplifying, what is the down side for you? Do you have fears that stop you? I tend to be fearful of making big decisions, So, I leave a lot of things just hanging out there undone. It can be a symptom of being a perfectionist too. Possibly, you overdo things so that your projects are never done, or never ready for consumption by the masses.

I see people around me who get a lot done and have amazing accomplishments, and what I think about them is they have incredible perseverance and are very brave.

It sounds to me like overdoing isn’t your problem. It’s overintending. The doing is where you fall short, because you’ve attempted too much. Your goals are unrealistic.

Like you, I tend to get wildly ambitious with my ideas. They quickly grow out of reach, from something I could do well to something that’s virtually impossible to achieve. Then my attempts look like failures instead of progress, and I just want to trash them.

What works for me is to set reachable interim goals and allow myself a sense of accomplishment as I tick off each one. Sometimes there are even little rewards that I’ve planned for myself at specific milestones.

I take a weekly art class. You can do only so much in 2 or 3 hours. I have to leave with unfinished work most of the time. But I come back and work on the piece some more. The structure of the class forces me to pace myself. It’s good discipline.

My art teacher says that anything we put down (on paper, on canvas) can be changed. She says that until you put something down, you can’t fix it. She also says that we should be able to stop at any time, and what we’ve done so far will have integrity.

One week when the model was late, the teacher posed for us for one 20-minute interval. I have a nice, minimalist but recognizable graphite sketch of my teacher. It might have taken nine hours to begin to do her justice, but 20 minutes what what I had.

Frodo didn’t set out for Mordor. He set out for Bree. But he couldn’t have got to Mordor unless he went to Bree first.

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It’s “accelerate,” by the way, which means to gain speed, and not “excellerate”—there’s no such word, although there almost ought to be. But I think you might mean “escalate” or “expand” or even “mushroom” instead.

Well, practice. When writing force yourself to edit, even if it means you have to delete a phrase that you really liked. Just….practice it.

You’re a control freak. Stop caring so much!

The behavior described has nothing at all to do with being a control freak. That would involve trying to harness the actions of others. He is discussing an inability to rein in himself. It is actually more obsessive behavior, sometimes referred to as being a perfectionist.

I at as ND by my my belief that he should find a good, constructive outlet for the aggressive need to overwork projects.