I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.
William Henley
1849 – 1903
Martin Seligman, a legendary psychologist, conducted a series of experiments in the 1960s. While the results were very informative, the tests probably would have gotten him arrested and charged with animal cruelty if they had been judged by today’s standards.
If you had observed one of these experiments, you would have seen a healthy-looking dog lying in one corner of a metal box. Intermittent electrical shocks were administered, making the dog whimper in pain. But there was nothing keeping the dog in the box; he could have easily walked out. So why did the dog stay?
Well, a few days prior, the dog had been strapped into the box with a harness that kept him trapped. After hours of trying to escape the harness, the dog accepted his fate; he became conditioned to the fact that he could not avoid the shock. Even after the harness was removed, the dog just lay there, whimpering with each shock but not trying to get away. Seligman termed this “learned helplessness.”
This concept is not limited to dogs; it occurs throughout the animal world. Even humans aren’t exempt from learned helplessness. In fact, I see it all the time.
People who are perfectly capable of bettering themselves don’t even try. They have accepted that they’re trapped and they take whatever life presents them.
You may find it difficult to believe that people actually become so conditioned that they no longer think for themselves: that they just accept the trials and tribulations of life with little or no effort to change things. But I see it every day.
Here are some examples:
– I see people who feel they are trapped in dead end jobs but make no effort to improve themselves or to seek other employment.
– I see people, mostly women, trapped in abusive relationships but feel there is nothing they can do.
– I see people who are resigned to a life without purpose or meaning but are unwilling to explore any number of avenues open to them.
You don’t have to accept self-imposed limitations on your life. That’s learned helplessness. Open your mind and your eyes to the possibilities that abound for living a better, more fulfilling life.
You don’t have a harness keeping you trapped where you are in life. The only limitations are the ones you impose on yourself. Your learned helplessness is self imposed; it’s up to you to break those limitations.
No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.
John Morley
1838 – 1923
Copyright © 2009 John Chancellor