The 10 Dumbest Mistakes - Conclusion

We have done it! We have arrived at the conclusion of the book The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them.

This process has taken several weeks because this book has had a lot of memorable passages. The mistakes Dr. Freeman is talking about are thinking mistakes. Otherwise known as cognitive distortions.

As noted, this blog is intended to be about effectiveness and entrepreneurship. And, cognitive distortions tend to be the epitome of ineffective. We are well-advised to remedy these mistakes.

In conclusion, to wrap up this discussion of cognitive psychologist, I figured I would post a summary of the ten mistakes. Personally, I reviewed this list until it was completely committed to memory. And it has served me well.

The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make are:

1. The Chicken Little Syndrome. In the children's story, Chicken Little is bopped on the head by a nut falling from the tree, and immediately thinks the sky is falling. In the same way, people jump to all sorts of catastrophic conclusions without a second thought. And this can be paralyzing.

2. Mind Reading. One of the most dearly dearly held illusions is that we know what others are thinking, and that others should know what we are thinking. “I don't have to tell him–he knows,” is an all-too-common remark, and one that has a way of leading to disappointment when it turns out that he is not only doesn't know, he doesn't even know you think he should know.

3. Personalizing. Some people seem to take everything personally. They assume responsibility for others' bad moods, even for bad weather, and as a result tend to feel either angry or guilty much of the time.

4. Believing Your Press Agent. This is a common failing of the famous, but quite ordinary folks who don't have press agents to glorify them in the media fall victim to it too. It involves, among other things, believing that success in one area automatically translates to success in every area without a need for the same effort that led to the first success.

5. Believing (or Inventing) Your Critics. This mistake is the direct opposite of believing your press agent. It can be just as troublesome, if in a different way, to accept without debate anyone who criticizes you about anything, or to assume that others are criticizing you, without bothering to determine how qualified those critics are to judge you or whether those critics even exist.

6. Perfectionism. This is the desire to be perfect in all things. It sounds quite admirable, and no one would deny that it's smart to set high standards for yourself. However, perfectionism becomes dumb when the standards you set are so high you can never meet them, nor can anyone else. It's dumb when the desire to be 100 percent perfect leads to zero accomplishment.

7. Comparisonitis. To compare and contrast is a respectable way of analyzing differences, but people often get into trouble by focusing only on negative comparisons of themselves to others, or by accepting negative comparisons of themselves made by others. This is very discouraging and usually inaccurate.

8. What-If Thinking. Worry. Worry. Worry. That's what what-if thinking is all about. It's worrying about things that don't exist or are highly improbable in addition to worrying about those threats to health and happiness that are of real concern. And it is worrying about those real threats to a degree that diminishes your power to deal with them instead of increasing your coping power.

9. The Imperative Should. Should is an ordinary, everyday word, except when it is used to indicate an order that may not be refused. Then should becomes a finger waving under the nose. The imperative says: “Don't you dare deviate by as much as a millionth of a millimeter or you'll be sorry. You'll feel guilty; you'll feel ashamed.” Should users build prison cells for themselves. They are so focused on what they should do, or should have done in the past, that they cannot think about what they can do, what they might do in the future.

10. Yes-Butism. The yes-but person always manages to find a negative that outweighs any positives. Or dreams up improbable rationalizations to excuse an obvious negative. Yes-but people get in their own, and others', way.