Today’s common understanding of catastrophe—a sudden disaster—is not the word’s original meaning. It first meant “a reversal of what is expected,” something altogether more broad, more benign, and perhaps more useful (you can see the connection with words like apostrophe, the etymology of which means, in effect, a “turning point”). The extension of meaning to “a sudden disaster” was first recorded in 1748, some 200 years after the first use of the word.
The Fine Art of Catastrophizing
Many of us unknowingly invite catastrophe (the modern definition) into our lives on a regular basis. Not that anything bad happens. It is just that we tend to look at a challenge that is facing us and then imagine the very worst thing that could happen. This is what it sounds like for me:
I could never challenge my boss...
. . . because she might get angry with me
. . . and then she would put me on nothing but bad projects
. . . and then I would fail at those projects
. . . and then I would lose my job
. . . and then I would not be able to find another job
. . . and then my wife would leave me
. . . and then I would have to sell the house
. . . and then I would start drinking
. . . and then I would end up on the streets, homeless
. . . and then I would be dead before I am 40
. . . and no one will even notice.
It is almost humorous when you see it written down like this. But for many of us, this style of thinking is all too familiar. It paralyzes us. It keeps us small. It keeps us playing safe and not taking chances to do something differently, to explore something new.
This type of thinking has been labeled “catastrophizing” and is symptomatic of a way of seeing the world that sees the bad that happens to you as part of a pervasive and ubiquitous tide of pain and evil that happens to everyone, everywhere. The term was made popular by Dr. Albert Ellis and rational emotive behavior therapy (RBET), a form of cognitive therapy. (Cognitive therapists believe that basically, to get better, you need to start thinking differently. And the bottom line in explaining RBET is “the world is not fair; deal with it.”)
Catastrophizing Is Bad for Your Health
Catastrophizing is more than just a limiting way of thinking. It is actually bad for your health. A study in 1998 by psychologist Dr. Christopher Peterson concluded that the tendency to catastrophize was linked to an increased risk of dying before the age of 65. “Males with a tendency to catastrophize were at the highest risk for early death,” Professor Christopher Peterson says. “They were 25 percent more likely to die by age 65 than men with other [ways of viewing the world], and they were at especially high risk for deaths by accident or violence.”
Breaking the Catastrophizing Cycle
Following are three techniques to break the catastrophizing cycle.
1. Calculation. Write down the whole catastrophizing process—like the example I have written out above. Then, for each of the different steps, estimate the odds of that actually happening to you.
For instance, in the example above, “she might be angry with me” might have a 20 percent (0.20) chance of happening, “she would put me on nothing but bad projects” might have a 3 percent (0.03) chance of happening, and so on. You can then estimate the actual chance of the final catastrophe happening by multiplying together the various percentages (for instance, 0.20 × 0.03 × ...).
2. Personification. The second approach brings “the voice of doom” to life. That inner voice—which some people call “the inner critic” or “the gremlin”—is not the truth, it just sounds like it. If you bring it to life, shine on a light on it and give it an appearance, it quickly loses its seeming omnipotence.
So what does your gremlin look like? (Is it big or small? What color is it? Does it look like someone you know—your sister, your father, that terrible teacher from first grade?) Whereabouts does it hang out? (In the back of your head? On your shoulder? In the corner of the room, just out of sight?) What sort of voice does it have? (Loud and shouty? Sly and whispery? Low and muttering?) As soon as you personify the gremlin voice, it is easier to notice it at work—and to realize that it is not as powerful as you have been thinking it is.
3. Make it absurd. The final technique is the fastest, and it is one I have borrowed from Benjamin Zander and his book The Art of Possibility. Stand up, throw your arms in the air, and declare out loud, “How fascinating!” This is effective because it shifts your physical state, it points to how seriously you are taking everything (and suggests you lighten up!), and it frames the situation as a learning moment.
It Is (Not) the End of the World As We Know It . . .
The most recent research on happiness shows that we imagine the impact of big events (both good and bad) to be greater than, in the end, it actually turns out to be. Our brains are wired in such a way that when those events happen, we reduce their impact and normalize what has happened.
Scientists posit that this is an evolutionary skill, one that has allowed us to more easily adapt to the ups and downs we face. Catastrophizing—so long as you know how to control it—may in fact help with this process as it allows us to imagine the worst and then manage it.
In any case, at the end of the day, it is worth remembering Mark Twain’s comment: “I've had a lot of problems in my life and most of them never happened.”
Resources for Dealing with Catastrophes
For help in dealing with catastrophes, you can consult the following books: Get Unstuck & Get Going . . . on the Stuff That Matters by Michael Bungay Stanier; Taming Your Gremlin by Richard Carson; The Art of Possibility by Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Particularly the First Habit) by Stephen Covey; and Stumbling into Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.
** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life”, visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/greatways3.html
Michael Bungay Stanier is the principal of Box of Crayons (http://www.BoxOfCrayons.biz), a company that works with organizations, teams, and individuals around the world to help them shift from doing good work to doing great work. Box of Crayons’s clients range from AstraZeneca to Xerox in North America and Europe. Michael is the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and holds a master of philosophy degree from Oxford and law and arts degrees from the Australian National University.
He created Get Unstuck & Get Going (http://www.GetUnstuckAndGetGoing.com), a self-coaching tool that is being used around the world, as well as “The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun” (http://www.EightPrinciples.com), an Internet movie that is been seen in over 125 countries.