5 “Thinking Traps” That Stop You From Taking Productive Action

You’ve got big goals; I know you do. No matter where you’re at on your journey to turning your dreams into reality, the most important thing that you’ve got to keep in check are your thoughts.

Our thoughts drive our emotions and actions. So, it is safe to say that if you want to make progress toward your goals with productive and effective actions, then you must learn to have productive and effective thoughts.

That’s not to say that we can never have unproductive thoughts; we are human after all. The trick is to be able to increase your awareness of when you are having counterproductive thoughts and to recover quicker into a way of thinking that will help you move toward what you want.

Having coached hundreds of clients, I have been helping people reset their mindsets for years in order to move closer to who they want to be and what they want to achieve.

While recently taking an online course offered by the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology department, I learned that they label these unproductive thoughts “thinking traps”, and they’ve outlined the most common ones.

Which thinking trap do you fall victim to most often?

1. The Mind Reading Trap. This is assuming that you already know what another person is thinking or assuming that others know what you’re thinking. This also includes assuming that you already know what somebody will say before you’ve asked the question. Usually, you’re assuming that the other person is thinking negatively about you.

I hear this thinking trap from people all the time. Mind reading blocks communication since you assume that you know what the other person is thinking or going to say, so then you never bother to ask the question.

When you don’t ask the question, then the answer is always “no”. Thus, no action will be taken.

2. The Me Trap. This trap has you thinking that you are the sole cause of every setback and problem that you’re encountering. This may include thinking that you’re causing problems to others. It’s all my fault.

Common iterations I’ve heard from this trap include believing I’m not ready, I’m not good enough, I messed it all up, I’ve made the wrong decision, I’m not cut out for this.

The Me Trap leads its victims to over experience guilt and sadness. As a result, this leads to less motivation to take action.

3. The Them Trap. This trap leads people to believe that other people or circumstances are the sole cause of their problems or setbacks. This is about blaming everybody else without taking any personal responsibility for the situation.

This trap leads to people over experiencing anger and aggression. Wasting precious energy on anger and aggression, oftentimes on people and things that are out of your control, leaves little energy to focus on solutions that are in your control.

4. The Catastrophizing Trap. This trap has people ruminating, going around and around in their head, on irrational worse-case outcomes.

One setback or challenge has people thinking how it will have a domino effect of destruction leading to a series of truly unfortunate events.

For example, losing a client would cause other clients to jump ship, leading to not paying able to afford the mortgage, then losing the house, the wife, custody of the kids, and even the family dog!

Yes, setbacks in life do happen. But this trap has people overestimating the threat and underestimating ones own inner resources to cope with adversity and to be able to find solutions to recover.

This trap leads to anxiety, agitation, and distraction – not being able to focus on what needs to be done. The anxious energy generated from catastrophizing blocks you from taking effective action.

5. The Helplessness Trap. This trap has its victims believing that a negative event will impact all aspects of their lives and nothing can be done about it.

People stuck in this trap believe that bad situations are here to stay and that they can’t do anything about it.

A common example I often I hear is when clients are stuck in a job that they hate and believe that no matter what they do, nothing will change. This leads to hopelessness, helplessness, and a serious lack of motivation. Feeling this way leads to passivity where no action is taken and the endless cycle continues.

So, there you have it. The 5 most common thinking traps.

Which one do you fall victim to the most?

The first step to leading a more productive, purposeful, and effective life is to become aware of when you fall into a thinking trap.

The next step is to self-manage by coming out of the trap faster and building resilience.

Stay tuned for the next post when I go over “3 Strategies To Overcome Thinking Traps & Build Resilience.”