WATCH: Are You Making Any Of These Thinking Errors?
There are lots of different ways to build your mental resilience. But a really powerful way is to catch yourself when you fall into one of ‘The Nine Thinking Errors’.
‘Ignoring the Good’
When there are so many good things happening. We just ignore the good and focus on the bad or focus on what’s going wrong without acknowledging the good things that are happening in our life, or in the work that we’re doing.
‘Blowing Things Up’
Catastrophising and making a huge issue out of a small error. That can easily happen when we’re stressed. That everything becomes a huge big drama.
‘Fortune Telling’
Beware of ‘Fortune Telling’, thinking that something’s going to happen in the future and that it’s going to be bad in some way. Because you think that way then you think, “oh that’s going to happen”. When in fact it might not at all. And in fact, if you can relax and stay creative, you can maybe avert some things, some bad things, happening.
‘Mind Reading’
Thinking that you know what other people are thinking. When in fact you’ve no idea what other people are thinking. You may see an expression on their face but that’s not the truth of what it is that’s necessarily happening in their brains. So, beware when you start to imagine, especially if it’s negative, how people are feeling about you or thinking about you. Be that clients or colleagues or other relationships in your life.
‘Negative Labelling’
You begin to see and label everything around you as being bad in some way and then that’s not helpful for you. So, beware when you start to categorise lots of things in a negative way. ‘Setting the bar too high’ means that you’re actually, striving for a level of perfection that may not be achievable. But it may not be necessary.
Find what’s the real level of excellence that you want to achieve but don’t go, and try to go, beyond that and then that’s always “never good enough”.
‘Self-Blaming’
Where you’re blaming yourself for things that maybe you even had no control over or there’s nothing you could do about it. You’re blaming yourself for making something go wrong when you didn’t actually have any control over And,
‘Feelings as Facts’
When we feel something, it’s not necessarily the truth. It’s a bunch of emotions that we’re feeling. So, be aware of how sometimes our feelings can be very intense but it’s not necessarily the truth and it does need to be checked.
‘Too Many Shoulds’
And, then finally ‘Too Many Shoulds’ in our life, where we’re thinking ‘’it should be this or it should be that’’, and that can create a lot of stress in our lives for ourselves and others.
So, when it comes to Mental Resilience, avoid the traps of thinking errors and, Stay curious!
With best regards,
David Klaasen
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©David Klaasen – 2014
