5 common cognitive biases that prevent us from living

Happiness depends on how we think. thinking errors make us see life in a negative way, but they can be recognized and avoided.

John Kim (John Kim)

Coach, motivational speaker, co-founder of the company SHFT.

What is cognitive bias

Cognitive bias - it is a way of reason to convince us of something that is not quite true. That is not a lie, but a half-truth.

Such inaccurate thoughts reinforce negative thinking and emotions. We like to tell ourselves the rational thing, but in fact their sole purpose - to maintain our malaise.

Below are the five most frequent thinking errors. Learn about each of them, ask yourself two questions:

• Have you noticed for such a cognitive bias?
• And if so, when?

Common cognitive distortions

1. Filtration

The essence of this error is that only the negative aspects of the situation are taken into account. Positive simply not taken into account. In this scenario, a person can get stuck on one negative point, because of what his life is painted in dull colors.

2. Black-and-white thinking

Polarized, or black-and-white thinking It lies in the fact that a man thinks extremes. He's either perfection or complete failure. There is no third.

If he does not perform the task perfectly, it perceives this as a complete failure. Such cognitive error is activated in sports and in business.

3. overgeneralization

At the same cognitive biases a person comes to a general conclusion based on just one incident or one part of the proof. If something bad happens once, he expects that it will happen again. One unpleasant incident is seen as part of an endless chain of failures.

This type of thinking is often included in a romantic relationship. For example, when, after a failed date a person decides that he will abide alone.

4. Quickly conclusions

This mistake is thinking that the man jumps to conclusions without gathering sufficient evidence.

So, it can advance to "understand" attitude towards him of another, not bothering to ask this another of his own opinion. This situation often occurs in interpersonal relationships and friendship.

The same applies to work and new projects. A person can assure himself a failure of a new enterprise, even without starting it.

5. disasterization

This cognitive bias causes a person feel the approaching disaster no reason at all. He constantly asks himself questions like "what if." What if there was a tragedy? What if it happens to me? What if I'm hungry? What if I die?

When such obsessive expectations develops a life of no happiness can be no question.

This error is also linked to a distorted perception of the scale of events. In this case, a slightly negative event, such as its own mistake, is seen as a tragedy of global proportions. A positive value of the important events only downplayed.

If you find yourself in at least one of these cognitive biases, ask yourself three questions:

• What's wrong with this pattern of thinking it brings into your life?
• How because it becomes your behavior?
• What role does it all plays in your daily life?

Perhaps the awareness of the harm of mental habits will be the impetus to what to say goodbye to them.