One Reason Your Workbooks Aren’t Working

Take a moment and think about how quickly you tend to come to conclusions. How much of a movie trailer do you need to see before you decide whether or not you will watch the film? Is a movie poster enough to come to a conclusion? How about when someone makes a suggestion?  Do you have an immediate assumption? Maybe something like, “I’ve already tried that,” “That seems like a good idea,” or “That’ll never work”? 

A major challenge to using a mental health workbook is that we tend to make quick conclusions about how helpful a given exercise or tool will be. It’s natural to come to rapid conclusions, but if we’ve been struggling with a problem for a while, we may also be quick to dismiss an approach before fully considering its potential benefit. 

For workbooks to be effective, you must invest the time to practice the recommended activities. Think of it like a science experiment — you need to try it multiple times before you can reach an informed conclusion about its efficacy. 

If you can notice the assumptions you make about workbook activities, and commit to a full trial of the activities regardless of your initial reaction, you can evade one of the major hurdles that can get in the way of progress and change.