Skip to content
BiohackademiaHuman performance
Foundations: what confidence actually isProtocol17 minModule lesson

Inner dialogue: dismantling automatic thoughts

Identify the distortions that feed doubt, and treat them one by one with a written method.

The voice that comments

You have a running inner commentator. In most people it is harsher than anyone they actually know.

The test that makes it obvious: would you talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself? Almost never. You would be considered cruel.

That commentary is not reality. These are automatic thoughts: fast, involuntary, believable, and very often wrong.

The seven commonest distortions

Overgeneralisation. One fact becomes a rule. I stumbled over a word becomes I am hopeless at speaking.

Mind reading. You attribute judgements to other people that they never expressed. They thought it was shallow. You have no idea.

Catastrophising. You run out the worst possible sequence. I will get it wrong, people will laugh, my reputation is finished.

The rest is part of the Confidence & Charisma module

Unlock this lesson and the other 13, with the 4 practical resources and the complete protocol.

€119€169

Lifetime access · Instant access

Would you rather try first? Read the free lessons