Sticks and stones may break my bones but words….they actually hurt. Especially when we're speaking or thinking about ourselves. Our words and our thoughts are extremely powerful! Have you ever stopped and identified if your thoughts help or hinder your Career? While cognitive distortions can be common, they have the potential to create problems and negatively impact your career. We all have these patterns of thought, consciously and unconsciously, and they can trigger disappointment and frustration and interfere with our motivation.
What is a Cognitive Distortion?
According to the American Psychological Association(APA), a cognitive distortion is, "faulty or inaccurate thinking, perception, or belief." and "is a normal psychological process that can occur in all people." Yes, that means that you're not experiencing this alone!
However, you may not even know that you’re experiencing cognitive distortions but here are some that you should be aware of:
Discounting the Positive: Not acknowledging the positive. Saying anyone could have done it or insisting that your positive actions, qualities or achievements don't count…
Emotional Reasoning: Assuming that a feeling is true - without digging deeper to see if this is accurate
Mental Filter: Allowing (dwelling on) one negative detail or fact to spoil our enjoyment, happiness, hope etc
Minimising or Magnifying (Also Catastrophizing): Seeing things as dramatically more or less important than they actually are.
Blame & Personalization: Blaming yourself when you weren't entirely responsible or blaming other people and denying your role in the situation
So how do we counteract this experience?
This is where "reframing" comes in. According to the APA, reframing is, "a process of reconceptualising a problem by seeing it from a different perspective." So basically this means in order to grow and expand our mindset we have to consciously look at a situation from a slightly different perspective. When we do this we are "altering the conceptual or emotional context" and this "serves to alter perceptions of the problem’s difficulty."
Here are some examples of distortions and how you can reframe them in your day to day life:
Discounting the positive: After you’ve completed a tough project don’t discredit your work by saying, “My co-workers could’ve done the same thing.” Instead, acknowledge your efforts, “I did a great job and I’m proud of myself”
Emotional Reasoning: “I’d never get a job I love. It's to tough out there” - It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead you should biew each job applicaiton as an opportunity for you to succeed. Don’t be fearful about the future, be couragous. Don’t be angry that you’re not didn’t ace the interview, be hopeful that with preparationa nd practice you’d do better next time.
Mental Filter: So you just came home from an interview and you thought it went well. However you remember a questions where you stumbled in the beginning. You start to think that because you stumbled they’re not going to hire you. Challenge your assumption! You’re filtering out that you were able to regain your footing and answer all other questions well. You could be worrying about nothing.
Don’t ruin your chances of success in your career. Recognise when you're experiencing a distortion and try to reframe your thougts. You should never be the reason why you're not achieving success!
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