Coaching practices for Test Your Worries

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Test Your Worries, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’m convinced that if I send this message or speak up in the meeting, people will think I’m incompetent
• The same handful of worries just cycle in my head on a loop, recurring because they never actually get pinned down
• Right before the test or the big moment, my head is so jammed with what-ifs and dread that there’s no room left to actually think
• There are things I rehearse over and over that I simply cannot do anything about, and I keep treating "let it go" like a switch I should be able to flip once and get frustrated when the worry comes right back
• I’m certain my worrying is just something that happens to me, totally beyond my control, and that belief alone makes it feel hopeless

Practices that may help

1. Test worry predictions with small behavioural experiments
   Treat a feared outcome as a hypothesis and design a small real-world test.
   The Worry Tree
2. The Worry Log: Capturing and Categorizing Worries
   Write down each worry as it arises, then categorize it as solvable or hypothetical before the worry window.
   Worry Time: Containing Anxiety With Scheduled Worry
3. Write about your worries before a high-stakes performance
   Offload performance anxiety by writing it out in full immediately before the event.
   Choking Under Pressure, Made Practical
4. Practice letting unsolvable worries be
   For worries you cannot act on, build the skill of acknowledging and releasing rather than rehearsing.
   Worry Postponement, Made Practical
5. Postpone worry as an experiment to test controllability
   Deliberately defer a worry for 30 minutes to prove to yourself that worry is more controllable than you believe.
   Metacognitive Therapy, Made Practical
6. Separate solvable worries from unsolvable ones
   Triage each worry into "act on it" or "let it go," and treat each kind differently.
   Worry Postponement, Made Practical
7. Check for catastrophizing
   Test whether you are amplifying the likely outcome beyond what the evidence supports.
   Check the Facts, Made Practical
8. Productive Problem-Solving vs. Worry
   Distinguish solvable worries — which need a plan — from hypothetical ones — which need acceptance or defusion.
   Worry Time: Containing Anxiety With Scheduled Worry
9. Classify the worry as current or hypothetical
   Ask: "Is this a real problem happening now, or a what-if scenario?"
   The Worry Tree
10. Contain worry with a scheduled worry period
    Assign worry a 20-minute daily window — and redirect it there the rest of the day.
    Accepting Uncertainty: The Core Skill in CBT for GAD

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