Overcoming Learned Helplessness

Summary: Overcoming learned helplessness is fairly easy, with the right tools in your toolbox. If you're feeling stuck, this article gives tips on how to begin the climb toward optimism and success.

Chances are there are times in life when you have experienced the phenomenon of learned helplessness, which is feeling that nothing you do will make a difference. You may have acted like the dogs in Martin Seligman and Steve Maier's experiment, and decided to quit trying to change the uncomfortable situation you were facing.

Shifting From Helplessness to Hopefulness

Overcoming learned helplessness involves believing that your actions will make a difference in whatever outcome you're trying to achieve. It's as simple as that. You have to shift to a state of hopefulness.

You may only be experiencing helplessness in one area of your life. For instance, you might believe that no matter what you do, you can never be good at basketball. You might have been deemed not good enough for a basketball team you were trying out for, and consequently decided you were not good at basketball.

Pop quiz: Who wasn't good enough for his own high school varsity basketball team the first time he tried out?

Answer: Michael Jordan.

It's amazing, isn't it? One of all the time greatest NBA players in the world couldn't make his high school varsity team the first time. It reminds me of Zig Ziglar's quote "Failure is an event, not a person."

Instead of quitting basketball altogether, Michael just became a much more competitive junior varsity player. Ron Coley, an assistant coach for Laney High School, recounts this story of the first time he watched Jordan play.

"I entered the gym when the jayvee game was just ending up. There were nine players on the court just coasting, but there was one kid playing his heart out. The way he was playing I thought his team was down by one point with two minutes to play. So I looked up at the clock and his team was down twenty points and there was only one minute to play. It was Michael, and I quickly learned he was always like that."

Jordan channeled his failure to make the varsity team into a drive that made him the hardest working member of his basketball team during practice. He eventually did make the varsity team after adding a few more inches to his height.

The takeaway from Jordan's story is not that he grew a few inches and made varsity, but that he focused on what he could control to make himself better - which was to work hard. He could only do so because he believed his actions would make a difference. In this way, Jordan is a great example of the kind of attitude you must adopt in overcoming learned helplessness.

Personal Development Tips For Overcoming Learned Helplessness

• Tip #1: Pick one area to focus on. What area of your life would you like to change? If you feel like the change is going to be hard, give yourself every chance by focusing on that one change. Don't try for other changes until you're sure you're making sustainable progress in your one area. Juggling too many balls can be stressful and make you ineffective.
• Tip #2: Believe you can make a difference. Michael Jordan worked hard to improve his basketball game. But how motivated would he have been if he didn't believe anything he did would matter?
• Tip #3: Stop criticizing yourself. Mistakes happen to the best of us. Don't blame yourself when things go wrong. Making a mistake at wok doesn't mean you're stupid. It just means you're human. Brush it off and resolve to do better next time.
• Tip #4: Start complimenting yourself. How often do you take time out of your day to compliment yourself? If you did something nice for someone, it's because you're a good person, and you should compliment yourself for it. Psychological research has shown that giving ourselves credit for things that go right lifts our attitude to more optimistic heights.
• Tip #5: Give yourself a better environment. If you're surrounded by people who are constantly tearing you down, you're not going to feel very optimistic. So if you have to change jobs to get away from negative co-workers or set some limits with certain family members, by all means, do it. A healthy environment contributes to an optimistic mindset.
• Tip #6: Focus on the things you can control. There's a psychological concept called "locus of control." People with a high internal locus of control believe the outcome of events is due to their own actions. People with a high external locus of control believe that circumstances beyond their control determine events. Guess which group is happier? If you guessed the people with the internal locus, you're right. So always ask yourself, "what can I do to make this situation better?" Focus on what you can do to make a difference.
• Tip #7: Reward yourself for little changes along the way. Reinforcing the little things you do along the way to the big change makes changing not only more fun, but also keeps you focused. As you think about the next step, you can also think about how you're going to reward yourself. So indulge in your favorite hobby, go out with friends, or do whatever it is that you find rewarding and relaxing.

Making changes in your life and overcoming learned helplessness is easy as A-B-C-1-2-3 -- because in the end, it's all up to you.

Related Article(s):

Learned Helplessness: Implications For Your Success

 

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