8 Types of Sentences That Reveal Limited Thinking

You’ve certainly heard phrases like “You’re a little old for that hair color” or “You shouldn’t spend so much on a cell phone”. Remarks like these are generally considered a sign of impoliteness. In part, this is true. But that’s not all: thoughts like these usually reveal certain beliefs that limit people’s growth. So the next time someone says something like that, don’t get mad. Think, instead, that the person needs to grow and develop.

Find out, in this post from awesome.club, what makes people “think small” and how to deal with people like that.

Limited thinking, also known as tunnel vision, is a kind of loss of peripheral vision or the ability to look at all the possibilities involved in a situation. That is, the focus is on just one idea, considered an absolute truth, without observing other possibilities.

People like this tend to be pessimistic and methodical, they are generally afraid of change and tend to recriminate other people’s attitudes, often giving unsolicited “guesses”. At the same time, they react negatively when their opinion is not accepted. Psychologist Matthew McKay analyzed the concept of limited thinking and identified eight patterns.

Some people tend to generalize situations and draw conclusions based on some more notorious — and, most of the time, unpleasant cases. For example: “In this store, sellers always cheat!” Or: “The neighbor never pays debts!” Or again: “Women with the face of a model always get everything easier.”

However, the habit of generalizing things, as if everything were restricted to a standard, makes one cynical and defeatist🇧🇷 Why fight if everything is already decided for us?

Everyone is a little afraid of taking risks. However, a person with limited thinking does not see the positive possibilities of a situation and only sees the potential bad outcome: “I’m not going to get a tattoo. If I do, they will certainly boycott me in a job interview.” The problem that does not yet exist becomes a serious obstacle to change.

Follow the following sentences: (1) “A mother should dress more decently” (2) “Every woman should be a good housewife” (3) “A man should earn well” and (4) “I have to be strong.”

People with beliefs like those mentioned above tend to cling to certain (in most cases, outdated) concepts and cannot get rid of them. Many people cling to such ideas and spend their whole lives unable to get rid of them. The world has changed and nowadays, we all have a universe of possibilities.

Here, again, the focus is automatically on the negative side of the event. The person does not see the good and positive aspects of situations, and sometimes even criticizes them, as if deliberately looking for flaws.

For example, phrases like “Why do they spend money on travel? They should save up for a house of their own.” or “You lost a lot of weight, but now your cheeks are sagging” indicate that the person has a kind of mental filter that tends to highlight only negative issues.

People prone to exaggeration love to talk about how bad things are and can be toxic in your relationships🇧🇷 For example, the phrase “There are no prospects in small towns, you need to move to the capital” is a clear exaggeration. It all depends, for example, on the activity that the person carries out. A farmer who grows organic, for example, may have great opportunities in smaller cities.

This thinking pattern is characterized by a lack of flexibility and the absence of a middle ground. All or nothing, eight or 80. People like that have trouble finding the ideal house, the ideal partner and the ideal job.

The person, in this case, considers his own assumptions about the thoughts of others to be true. He considers, in other words, that he is able to “read people’s minds”. Relying on stereotypes, intuition or little experience, it draws erroneous conclusions and provokes conflicts. “A colleague asked about my friend. She definitely liked him,” might be one of those foregone conclusions. Another: “My daughter has not cleaned her room again and only gets bad grades. She does everything to annoy me.” Or again: “Having two children must cause a lot of hassle. So, of course, she lives upset”.

Unlike the previous pattern, personalization assumes total focus on oneself. The person compares himself with others and is very concerned about his own opinion. This pattern of behavior is typical of people with low self-esteem. People who only “look inside” live tormenting themselves. For example: “Everyone talks about how clumsy I am.” Another: “Everyone around me looks at me so strangely.” Or again: “I am already 40 years old. What have I achieved so far?”

What examples of limited thinking do you know of? Comment with us.