Common Mistakes in Thinking: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Common Mistakes in Thinking, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Spotting cognitive distortions
Learn the recurring thinking errors — catastrophizing, all-or-nothing, mind-reading — to label them on sight.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Made Practical - Rule out mind-reading and fortune-telling
Catch the two most common interpretation errors — assuming you know what someone is thinking, or what is about to happen.
Check the Facts, Made Practical - Overgeneralization
Draw a sweeping conclusion from one or a few negative events.
Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression - Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression
Cognitive distortions are systematic patterns of inaccurate thinking that maintain anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem — patterns like all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and mind-reading. David Burns popularized a list of ten common distortions in "Feeling Good," drawing on Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy. The core claim — that these thought patterns are identifiable, learnable, and correctable through deliberate examination — is well supported by CBT’s strong evidence base. - All-or-nothing thinking (black-and-white thinking)
Evaluate situations and yourself in absolute, binary terms — perfect or failure, always or never.
Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression - Name the cognitive distortion
Match the thought to a known thinking trap — catastrophizing, mind-reading, all-or-nothing.
Cognitive Reframing, Made Practical - Mind-reading
Assume you know what others are thinking, usually negatively, without evidence.
Cognitive Distortions: The Thinking Errors Behind Anxiety and Depression - Cognitive restructuring
Identify an automatic thought, test it against evidence, and replace it with a more accurate one.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Made Practical - Examine the evidence for and against
Test the thought like a hypothesis: what actually supports it, and what argues against it?
Cognitive Reframing, Made Practical - Notice which system is driving
Before deciding, ask whether this is a System 1 (snap) or System 2 (effortful) problem.
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Made Usable
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- One bad moment and I’m off
- I walked away from that meeting certain my boss is unhappy with me and certain the whole project is going to fall apart
- One thing goes wrong and it instantly becomes a life sentence
- If it’s not perfect it’s a total failure to me
- I’ve caught the exact thought now, and part of me suspects it’s one of those mental tricks my mind keeps pulling, but as long as it stays unnamed it just feels like the plain truth and I can’t get any distance from it.
Related concerns
- Cognitive Thinking Errors
Cognitive distortions are systematic patterns of inaccurate thinking that maintain anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem — patterns like all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and mind-reading. David Burns popularized a list of ten common distortions in "Feeling Good," drawing on Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy. The core claim — that these thought patterns are identifiable, learnable, and correctable through deliberate examination — is well supported by CBT’s strong evidence base.
- Mistakes In Thinking
Learn the recurring thinking errors — catastrophizing, all-or-nothing, mind-reading — to label them on sight.
Spotting cognitive distortions
- What Are Common Mistakes In Thinking Called
Learn the recurring thinking errors — catastrophizing, all-or-nothing, mind-reading — to label them on sight.
- Automatic Negative Thoughts Examples
Draw a sweeping conclusion from one or a few negative events.
Overgeneralization
- Cognitive Distortion Catastrophic Thinking
Label the type of distortion — all-or-nothing, catastrophizing, mind-reading — to reduce its grip.
Identify the cognitive distortion at work
- Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive distortions are systematic patterns of inaccurate thinking that maintain anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem — patterns like all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, and mind-reading. David Burns popularized a list of ten common distortions in "Feeling Good," drawing on Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy. The core claim — that these thought patterns are identifiable, learnable, and correctable through deliberate examination — is well supported by CBT’s strong evidence base.
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