Terrible at Thinking on My Feet

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I'm terrible at considering and weighing my options at the spur of the moment. How do I overcome this problem?

I have exactly the same difficulty. I can't think quickly on-the-spot. I struggle with this constantly, so I'm probably not the best person to hand out advice. Except that I've always heard the best thing you can do is try very hard to pause before responding to anything or anyone. Take a breath, count a beat or two, in order to try to get in touch with your true reaction, feelings, answer, or whatever the situation is.

If it's something in which you have to make a decision and you don't have to impart that decision right away, ask for some time to think things over, or say you'll get back to the person.

But if it's a spur of the moment thing that needs a response right now, try the mentally stepping back and taking a calm breath method.

For me, I think part of the problem is that I'm trying so hard to react instantly the way I feel I'm expected to do (because "other" people appear to do so), that I don't take a second to truly get in touch with what I really want to say or respond with.

I can't tell you I'm always successful in pausing for those few beats in order to marshall my thoughts, but it's the advice I always run into about this.

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avoid situations that require you to think quickly.

I think it stems from over thinking things. I'm like that too. I like to weigh up all the options and make the best decision. Trying not to be a perfectionist and going with your gut instinct might help. Maybe also don't be afraid of failure. No one is perfect. Just go for it.

Some days I surprise myself and I cope quiet well, other days I spend a long time deliberating what would take someone else seconds.

it's probably just too much to process given that we're the kind of people that like to think deeply.

You eventually find that you've experienced a lot of situations and that everything is just a variation of something you've already encountered. You still can't think on your feet but because you're looking back into your memory for answers rather than dealing with things on the fly you look a lot more convincing.

I had this problem. I was bad at making spur of the moment decisions. How did I overcome this? I got so bad at making long term decisions, even when I had time to decide I still took too much time to choose so that eventually all of my decisions ended up being spur of the moment decisions because I waited 'till the last second to decide. How did that turn out for me? I don't make the best decisions but I usually make decisions good enough that they're still better than complete inaction, which was what I had before.

Before I felt like my life was a Buridan's Ass paradox. Now I realize that if I try to choose the best choice but I'm wrong and I end up choosing the second best choice, that's still far better than doing nothing at all.

I try to avoid or stall those situations, but don't get down on myself if I don't react in the most preferable manner. All I can do is aim for improvement.

It helps if you're able to not get stressed out in those moments, for starters. Take a second and think about your options.