Learned helplessness is a psychological state in which individuals come to believe they have no control over events, even when change is possible.
It’s happens when you learn that your actions are futile.
After repeated failures or uncontrollable stressors most humans will stop trying to improve their situation. Believing nothing they do will make a difference.
Often we learn these things in childhood when it’s easy to control us.
Example: When elephants are young they are staked to the ground and unable to move. When they get older they can easily rip the stake out with their powerful legs, yet they don’t. They remain staked, because they have the memory of their actions being futile. This is how a tiny piece of wood and string can keep one of the most powerful and intelligent animals on earth subdued.
We humans are no different.
Think about where you’ve learned to be helpless. What actions do you believe are futile? Where do you think you have no power? What type of things seem impossible to change?
These are the areas you need to confront and begin taking action in.
Forewarning though it’s going to be painful as fuck, you’ve spent a long time building up psychological resistance and there’s a real cost to undoing it.
But if you can undo it you should. The rewards are worth it.
Godspeed.
