How Our Brains Trip Us Up #5: Jumping to Conclusions
The ‘How Our Brains Trip Us Up’ blog series is pulled together from content written for but not ultimately included in my book, Why You Skipped Your Workout. If you’d like to read more and do the exercises associated with this content, they are included in Chapter 8 - Your Self Talk is Biased Too.
Think of those days that everything goes well. Even the series of red lights on your way to work lets you enjoy your favourite song for longer. Then think of those days that everything is going wrong, and those red lights are just another sign that today is going to suck.
Some of the differences between these two days are in our thoughts, or more specifically, our thinking errors…
Read about other thinking errors here:
All or Nothing Thinking
Overgeneralisation
Thinking Error #5
Jumping to Conclusions
INTRO
“My instructor didn’t say good job at the end of class so obviously I’m not welcome back.”
“The woman taking this class is really athletic so it’s going to be too hard for me.”
“Those girls in the entrance were laughing, it must be at me because I can’t do X.”
If there was a thinking equivalent to parkour, this would be it. We generally jump to conclusions in two ways:
Mind reading - Assuming how someone else is thinking or feeling based on limited or patchy evidence (example 1 and 3).
Fortune Telling - Predicting the outcome of events or situations with limited or patchy evidence (example 2).
When it comes to movement, this usually comes down to assuming people are judging our body or ability; assuming things will be too hard for us; or that people will judge us because this is too hard for us in a horrendous double whammy. Jumping to conclusions can create huge barriers to exercise, we’ve all heard the stories of bad encounters in gyms and it’s understandable that our brain wants to protect us from that.
Confession Time: How All Or Overgeneralising Shows Up for Me
I’m a big fan of sharing the messy middle and the behind the scenes, so for each thinking error I’ll share how it shows up for me.
Hilariously, all or nothing thinking showed up for me when I started this blog series - I wanted to adapt and finish all 10 blogs in one day, as well as doing my client work. A few years ago, I would have tried to complete that plan, fortunately, writing this blog was the perfect reminder that creating one blog today is still moving the needle.
Managing Jumping to Conclusions
Managing Jumping to Conclusions
First off, people are not paying that much attention to you when you are in a class, gym or studio. They are too busy focusing on their body - seriously! That face when they looked at you? It was probably because they were knackered and you walking past just caught their eye. We’re designed to look at movement, and after discerning you’re not a threat, they went back to it without a second thought!
Second, we jump to conclusions to find certainty and answers. When it comes to people’s thoughts about us and the outcomes of future events we have neither of these and that is OK! How can we get OK with that when it comes to movement?
Mind Reading
If you are mind reading mostly in the world of movement, I have some reassurances for you:
Your coach is not looking at your body to judge it - We look to see how you are moving, and in ‘biomechanics mode’ we see patterns, not specifics.
That athletic coach does this for a living, but she will have her own movement story. Ask where she began, and you may find she relates to you more than you could believe.
Teenagers or bodybuilders laughing make us all nervous - it’s not just you - but it’s probably about something on TikTok.
If you are not gelling with your coach or wonder what they think of you, it’s OK to ask for reassurance/support in a different way. Good coaches will understand the need for different types of feedback - and if they can’t offer what you need, you are allowed to find someone else!
If this is a pattern you have in other areas of life, you often ‘mind read’ and worry about the thoughts/intentions of others. This can be a response to previous toxic or abusive interactions, a sign of sensitivity to conflict, self-esteem issues, anxiety, or a whole host of other things that means you regularly face trouble here - if this is pervasive in your life, seek out a counsellor, therapist, or other mental health professional to work through your unique route to mindreading.
Fortune Telling
First, check for evidence that supports your conclusions. Second, challenge those conclusions with wildly positive potential outcomes. Instead of worrying you won’t like this dance class, imagine entering the class, flawlessly executing every movement and being picked up by a talent scout. Next year you tour Europe with your dance crew, personal chef, and on-call massage therapist.
Equally unlikely, but a whole lot more fun!
When are you prone to overgeneralisations?
And if you’d like to read more, here are some books that cover thinking errors in interesting ways:
Why You Skipped Your Workout
The Little CBT Workbook
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before)
