Hi Sophie,
Wow, today’s step was so interesting, something I never considered at all but I completely see it – preconditioned helplessness. ‘Learned helplessness’-this is definitely a brand new concept to me… but I definitely see it, looking at all of the diet plans & health books since way back in history, looking at all of the millions of self- help books & programs, it does seem like we are all convinced that some outside help is necessary to achieve anything at all, myself included.
I also hadn’t thought about why on earth we’re so afraid to take a risk… I wonder if that same media bias that clouds over the long process involved to start something and doesn’t show the long process helps to perpetuate the fear of starting something.
Years ago when I was about 30, I jumped into a business that was 3.5 million dollars in debt, thinking I could get capital from somewhere & turn it around… I thought people would want to invest just because it was cool- I knew nothing about proving that I could actually turn a profit. I was there sometimes 24/7, sleeping on cardboard boxes, and I didn’t see it as scary at all….it was more of a ‘how hard can this be?’ …Even with all that liability I saw it as an adventure… I considered that I wasn’t married & had no kids, & so it totally was a ‘success or no success, who cares’ for me… why would that have changed? It’s true that I don’t ever want to be in that particular situation again, but it’s also true that what I learned was far beyond any college education.
After that I got a pretty intense job as a buyer for a manufacturer, lots of long hours for years… since then I’ve become pretty stingy with my time, especially now that my schedule is more flexible … I’ve become obsessed with’ my time is my own’, and I completely lost that fearlessness.
The principle I took from that is ‘Staying safe is a false economy’. It really is, and I can see how settling in to a salary job is like the dog cowering in the box that it could jump out of- we have become people who want a pill to fix things rather than doing the work to fix them.
Another principle I got was Innovating out of problems… that the opposite of helplessness is creativity. Wow. This really is a principle that applies to all aspects of life I think. I love the statement ‘ the opposite of helplessness is creativity’. This is an area where I have struggled, it’s like I can’t get my brain to step outside of the box & come up with new Ideas. But if we can come up with creative ideas, I can see where we can literally innovate our way out of any situation.
This one gave me a lot of thinking to do.
Thanks !
Jodie