The Lessons You Can Learn From The Computer Screen Metaphor

The computer screen metaphor shows how much your thoughts can affect you, to the point that they can even make you lose sight of all your goals. It uses a simple story to describe how your thoughts can affect you in everyday situations.

This metaphor can help you see a situation from two different perspectives. It is also a great example of how negative thoughts can affect your ability to reach your goals.

In the computer screen metaphor, messages represent automatic, negative thoughts. These are the ideas that often contaminate our thought processes, treat them and lead to problems.

Studies have shown that such thoughts usually lead to failure. But the worst thing is that when it happens, you can not see that you are the one who has brought it on yourself.

The computer screen metaphor

Imagine this. Two people work together next to each other. Suddenly, messages start appearing on both of their computer screens. The messages say “You will not be able to solve the problem” and “You are useless”.

The first person tries to delete the messages, but they just keep popping up. Furthermore, this person tries to focus on their work and not let the comments affect them. Instead of being influenced, they decide to continue doing their job.

After receiving the same messages, the other person tries everything they can think of to delete them. The comments distract them and affect their self-esteem. They do not feel able to continue working until they make the messages on the screen disappear.

In the end, they do not get rid of the messages and do not finish their work. The messages blocked them and prevented them from doing their job. They just got more frustrated, and the negative messages just kept coming.

The other person gets furious with the first when they see them working and even enjoying their tasks. They assume that the first person does not receive the same messages.

The lessons in the computer screen metaphor

There are a few lessons worth learning from this metaphor:

There is always more than one solution

You can see that these two people handled exactly the same situation in different ways. This is a great example of how important it is to have self-confidence.

When in doubt or receiving negative comments, you need to be able to stay focused. Things are almost never 100% positive or negative. There is usually a balance, but your thoughts tend to be those that swing comments in one direction or another.

2. Negative thoughts

Negative thoughts always pop up in your head unexpectedly. They stem from your personal experiences and can distract you from your goals.

They trigger doubts and create internal conflicts. However, they are also natural and happen automatically. Our suggestion is to learn not to feed them.

What person do you identify with?

The first person was able to overcome the bumps in the road and finish his work. This means that they won the battle against all the negative thoughts that tried to take over and derail all day. This is why it is so important to know how to control negative thoughts, because you can not predict when they will appear in your mind.

Meanwhile, the other person succumbed to the pressure of the flood of negative messages on their screen. They let the messages affect their natural rhythm. Thus, they were unable to focus their thoughts on their work.

The computer screen metaphor is a great example of why it is important to have good coping strategies.