When we’re
beating ourselves up, a tiny blunder is inflated into an epic typhoon of
failure. So the next time a negative thought intrudes, take a few deep
breaths and then “quickly narrow it down and put your problems into the
smallest box possible,” Chansky says. “If you think you screwed up in a
meeting, instead of saying, ‘I’m an idiot; I ruined my career,’ say,
‘Man, I used a poor choice of words.’ Visualizing that box can really
help.”
Seeing a tiny box in your mind shows the actual size of the problem and helps you feel more confident that you can take it on.
