leads to a more and more restricted life and your view of the world becomes stereotyped. Cue words that indicate you may be over-generalising are: all, every,
none, never, always, everybody and nobody. To become more flexible use words such as: may, sometimes and often, and be particularly sensitive to absolute
statements about the future, such as ‘No one will ever love me’, because they may become self-fulfilling prophecies.
5. Assumption
Example: ‘Nothing can change the way I feel’. Making an assumption, presupposes knowledge that you do not have. Assumptions are often popular beliefs that have
been adopted without examining their basis in fact, such as ‘I’m over the hill now that I’m forty’. Making decisions based on assumptions may lead to disaster, as when
an executive assumes that a new product will sell well, having made no market research. Often, taking things for granted causes people to be blind to possible
solutions - assuming no-one can help them, a couple’s marriage may go on the rocks, when they could seek counselling. Question: what leads you to believe this? Why do
it this way? Who says? What alternatives are there? What would happen if you did? What would happen if you didn’t?
As a practical matter, all of us must proceed with the business of living by relying on ‘maps’ of the world which we have taken on trust and which we have not tested and
often cannot test. To supplement personal experience, we absorb a constant stream of reports, descriptions, judgements, inferences and assumptions coming from a
multitude of sources. From this abundance of stored information, you piece together a mental ‘model’ of the world and its workings that literally becomes your world
view. However, people do vary considerably in the extent of their misinformation and in the degree to which they actively seek out new information, take opportunities
to correct or update their mental models, and expose themselves to new experiences.
6. Projection
Example: ‘I know he doesn’t like me’. Making false assumptions about what other people think depends on a process called projection. It is like mind-reading - putting
words into peoples’ mouths. You imagine that people feel the same way you do and react to things the same way. If you get angry when someone is late, you assume that
another will feel the same way about you or others, in that situation. If you don’t like yourself, you assume others also think that way. The answer is not to jump to
conclusions about what other people think and feel.
7. Negative thinking
