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Chapter 1
Introduction to cognitive and behavioural approaches to achieving career success
We have 50,000 thoughts per day1 ā not all of them are helpful
I know youāve just started reading this book, but please indulge me and just take a minute to sit somewhere quiet and close your eyes. Just notice the flow of your thoughts and where they take you. You may notice visual images, memories and verbal thoughts occurring to you in completely random ways. Iād like you to also pay attention to any subtle changes in how you are feeling: notice how some of these random thoughts have an emotional tone to them. Perhaps they make you feel slightly amused, baffled, concerned? When I run this simple exercise in workshops with people, they are very often surprised to discover the level of mental activity that is taking place in their minds on a second-by-second basis. As human beings we have a tendency to take our thoughts for granted, unless we deliberately engage our minds in a specific activity. But as I hope to show you, our minds are constantly active, often below our level of awareness, responding to whatās happening in the present moment but also flitting backwards and forwards between our past memories and our imagined futures. All of these mental activities will influence the way we feel and act, the view we have of ourselves, the world and other people ā sometimes without our even knowing it. We can harness this amazing mental powerhouse by becoming more skilled in managing our thinking processes to achieve success in the workplace and life in general. And Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT gives us the tools to do this.
Cognitive behavioural therapy simplified
C = Cognitive: All mental processes that we engage in, including our focus of attention and thoughts about the present, future and past. These could include verbal or visual thoughts, dreams and our perceptions of the world, ourselves and others.
B = Behavioural: Every action we take generally following some thought process. This can involve getting things done, communicating with others and seeking pleasurable activities. But it can also include avoiding certain things in life or choosing not to carry out an action (e.g. telling your boss what you think of them when annoyed).
T = Therapy: A bit of a scary word as it implies mental illness, but in this instance itās helpful to think of the term as describing a systematic methodology for overcoming a specific problem.
CBT is recognised throughout the world as a cutting-edge treatment used to help people deal with a range of psychological challenges. Examples include:
ā¢Depression
ā¢Anxiety
ā¢Social anxiety
ā¢Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
ā¢Panic disorder
ā¢Phobias
ā¢Obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD)
ā¢Eating disorders
ā¢Body dysmorphic disorders (BDD)
CBT is highly scientific and uses evidence-based practice in its approach. This means that the effectiveness of each method for dealing with a specific psychological problem (depression for example) is thoroughly tested through random controlled trials. Participants are randomly assigned to a CBT treatment group, an alternative therapy and a placebo group to prove the effectiveness of the methods used. Years of research and ongoing improvement have led CBT to be recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) within the British National Health Service (NHS) for dealing with different psychological problems that millions of people experience.
At this point, I just want to emphasise that CBT approaches arenāt just confined to dealing with āmental health problemsā. The origins of this highly effective therapy go back to the 1970s and the two āfounding fathersā, Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, who developed CBT specifically to help their patients overcome different psychological problems. As I mentioned, CBT has broadened its scope by developing a wide range of detailed therapeutic protocols for treating specific psychological disorders world-wide (e.g. PTSD). However, in recent years CBT has also evolved as a methodology for optimising that way we think, feel and act when tackling the challenges that life throws at us on a daily basis (going for job interviews, negotiating an increase in salary) without assuming that we are suffering from a psychological illness. This is largely due to the work of Martin E. P. Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association and Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Seligman is widely acknowledged to be the worldās leading expert in positive psychology and has adapted CBT by moving away from a āpsychological disorderā model to an approach that helps people to deal with life challenges more effectively and obtain greater levels of happiness and satisfaction. Seligmanās work in this area is highly influential and he has published a number of best-selling books including Learned Optimism (2006), Authentic Happiness (2002) and The Optimistic Child (2007). I have followed a similar approach by combining career counselling and CBT, drawing on my experience over the years in both disciplines, and can now offer you a powerful model that will help you to succeed in your career.
As youāll come to see, one of the most important features of CBT is that once you have learned the techniques set out in this book, you will become self-sufficient in dealing with present and future challenges in your career and life. This is because CBT will help you to define emotional and behavioural challenges more clearly, for example, dealing with anxiety whilst giving a presentation, and help you to set constructive goals around how you would prefer to feel and act (e.g. confident and alert). The CBT strategies that Iāll teach you will give you a problem-solving approach to managing your thoughts, feelings and actions more effectively in the workplace and life in general. But before I go any further, I want to tell you about Viktor Frankl.
Viktor Frankl
Like his contemporary Sigmund Freud, Viktor Frankl was a Jew living in Austria when the Nazis swept to power in the 1930s. He was also a psychiatrist who went on to develop a form of psychotherapy called logotherapy. Its central principle is that the main motivational force for human beings is the search for meaning in life. What is singularly remarkable about this man is that he developed his theories whilst suffering extreme degradation and forced labour in the death camps of Nazi Germany, including Auschwitz. Apart from his sister, Franklās whole family died in the camps or gas chambers, including his wife. It is difficult to imagine how bleak life must have seemed for Frankl after his loved ones had died and he faced a daily regime of brutality and possible execution. And yet, even under these potentially degrading circumstances, Frankl developed what he described as the last of the human freedoms (Frankl, 1984): the ability to choose his response to external circumstances. Frankl used his experiences in the camps to gradually forge his mental and emotional capacities so that eventually he experienced an inner freedom that his captors could not take from him. If they stripped him naked and tried to degrade him, his chosen response was to feel dignity as a human being. When his fellow prisoners gave up their struggle by hurling themselves at the electrified fences to die, Frankl chose hope, that one day he would be free from captivity to share the knowledge he had developed in extremis.
A more recent example is that of Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for 28 years spent mostly on Robben Island, a former leper colony, as a consequence of his battle against apartheid. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (1995), Mandela describes the brutality of the Afrikaner guards, the physically punishing enforced labour and the squalid living accommodation in his cell. But, like Frankl, Mandela did not allow himself to feel degraded by this experience and chose his response to external circumstances by acting with dignity, teaching political economy to fellow prisoners and playing chess.
Frankl and Mandela are inspiring examples of the power of thought and how the human mind can be used to endure severe hardship and choose a positive response to adversity. CBT provides us with the framework to choose our own cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses to life challenges, as we shall see when we explore two important foundational models that will underpin many of the strategies set out within this book.
The life challenges model
The model set out in Figure 1.1 can be used to explore the complex interaction that occurs between our thoughts, emotions, physiology and behaviour patterns when we engage with any minor or major challenge in life. You can find a blank copy of the model at Appendix 1.
We all face challenges on a daily basis of varying magnitude. At a minor level we may be confronted by delays on the way to work or the challenge might be more significant, like giving a major presentation for a contract in a high-pressure situation. Or we may face future challenges on the horizon that preoccupy us in the present moment, like the prospect of starting a new job in another country. Within this model recognition is given to the fact that we may be influenced by these challenges in terms of how we think, feel and act. But just like Viktor Frankl and Nelson Mandela, we can make a big difference to the way we feel by changing unhelpful thoughts and behavioural reactions ā even if we canāt change the nature of the challenge.
Life challenges trigger thought processes in our minds that invariably lead to emotional reactions and physiological responses. These in turn influence our behavioural reactions. Once triggered, these four domains interact with one another rapidly. Imagine you are at a conference feeling fairly relaxed watching other people giving presentations. Quite unexpectedly you are called upon to give a presentation on a subject you know little of. There are a hundred people at the conference and suddenly you find yourself thinking, āIām really going to screw this up and look stupidā. You have a mental image of yourself red-faced and trembling in front of the audience. Your anxiety level soars and you can feel your heart thumping in your chest. You walk to the lectern in a timid way wishing you could hide behind it. Your mind has registered your defensive physical behaviour as a danger signal along with your rapidly beating heart and you start to think, āThis really is all going wrong!ā leading to a further spike in anxiety.
Figure 1.1 Life challenges model.
When you apply the model to the above example you can see how this particular challenge (impromptu public speaking) triggered a negative thought process, which led in turn to an unhelpful emotional reaction (anxiety). We experience all emotions as physiological responses and in this instance the huge surge of adrenaline resulted in rapid heartbeat and sweating. This led to timid, defensive behaviour. But the process doesnāt stop there, because the brain registers these physiological and behavioural changes as a potential threat, which leads to further catastrophic thinking and another loop round the vicious cycle of increased anxiety, adrenaline and deteriorating performance. Understanding how these domains interact with one another provides us with a method for analysing and improving our strategies for dealing with present and future life challenges. But before we go any further with the model, letās consider some of the thinking processes that we routinely engage in and some of the pitfalls to avoid.
Thoughtāfeeling links
Letās go back to the example in which you are suddenly called upon to give a presentation with little preparation. You may think that the situation makes you anxious and most people believe that events make them feel a certain way (your boss being rude to you makes you annoyed, a car cutting in front of you makes you angry). But on closer examination you can see that it very often isnāt the event that makes you feel a certain emotion, but the way you are thinking about it. In the example above, the prospect of giving a presentation at short notice doesnāt make you feel anxious; telling yourself that youāre going to screw it up does. The reason why most people make these thoughtāfeeling links is because we are constantly bombarded by external events and react to them without reflection. When something challenging happens to you, itās worth pausing for a few seconds and considering your mental response. Ask yourself, is this thinking going to help or hinder me? This is what Viktor Frankl described as having the freedom to choose between what he referred to as stimulus and response. As we have seen, although his captors tried to break Franklās spirit through various degrading acts (the āstimulusā), his mental response was one of dignity. Cultivating the ability to choose your mental response to challenging situations will give you a powerful tool for dealing w...
