Episode 36 – 10 Errors of Thinking that Will Hold You Back In Your Life [PODCAST]

It’s amazing how obvious it is, yet how few people truly recognize it: What you think impacts the way you live, and therefore the rest of your life. Every one of us needs to realize that we are responsible for our thoughts and that we can take them captive to create a better life for ourselves; and it all happens right inside our own heads. On this episode of Crank It Up with David T.S. Wood, David is rambling a bit about an article he read in Forbes Magazine entitled “10 Thinking Errors That Will Hold You Back In Life.” You’ll find some great stuff here… and probably see yourself in at least one or two of the descriptions, so get out your pen and jot down some notes.

One of the greatest keys to success… killing those negative thoughts.

We all experience it. The “lizard brain” as Seth Godin calls it. The “negative self” as others have coined it. “The Imposter” as David refers to it in this episode. It’s that tendency we all have to criticize ourselves unduly, to see the worst in what we say or do rather than to see the good. Killing those thoughts is catalytic to moving forward in life and it’s something David’s chatting about in this episode.

The all or nothing syndrome – a HUGE thinking error.

Many of us fall into this trap, thinking that things are either all black or all white, when in reality there are tons of variations between “good” and “bad.” We generalize our day because of one negative experience and call it “a bad day.” We have one 5 minute slow down on the freeway over the course of a 35 minute drive and say traffic was “terrible.” Thinking in such “all or nothing” ways is a limitation to our ability to see possibilities, to live a grateful life, and to have an overall positive attitude. Find out how David suggests you handle this destructive tendency on this episode of Crank It Up.

You are not a mind reader, right? Then why do you act like you are?

Very few of us would claim that we can really read another person’s mind. Yet we often act as if we know exactly what another person is thinking. We assume their motive because of a facial expression. We conclude they were thinking bad of us because of their tone of voice. But the reality is that we don’t know what those people are thinking much of the time. Does it serve us to make such categorizations? Does it foster unity and harmony in our relationships? David’s got some good advice on how to deal with the “mind reader” tendency, so you should listen in to this episode if you struggle with this thinking error.

Comparison is a killer.

Yet we all tend to do it, don’t we? There’s an “unrealistic ideal” we tend to hold up in our minds for the type of performance or lifestyle that we expect ourselves to achieve. It could be symbolized in a person we compare ourselves to, or in an elusive self-created expectation that we’ll never reach. Either way, it’s comparison of ourselves to something unreal, something ideal that only serves to discourage. David has experienced this one himself and shares his tips on overcoming it, in this episode of Crank It Up, with David T.S. Wood.

Outline of this great episode

[0:48] David’s introduction to this solo episode!

[2:25] The keys to success – replacing the 10 common thinking errors.

[3:34] The Imposter – what it is and how you can identify it.

[4:44] The “All or nothing” thinking error.

[6:55] The error of “overgeneralizing.”

[11:23] Filtering out the positive – a great error.

[14:46] The terrible tendency toward assuming we know what others are thinking.

[15:39] The error of thinking things are much worse than they really are.

[18:35] The mistake of labeling people and experiences into categories.

[19:59] Don’t fall into the trap of “fortune telling.”

[20:53] We take everything personally, even though the universe doesn’t revolve around us.