Learned Helplessness

Seems pretty depressing for me to blog about Learned Helplessness on the eve of a Public Holiday or rather Public Holidays. But the above image has somewhat been tattoed to my mind of late (must be the book I'm reading).

Perhaps as I look around me, the more I observed unleashed potential due to --- learned helplessness, past failures or self worth that has been battered so badly, it is almost beyond repair. Some days, its almost too high a calling to aspire to encourage and inspire these individuals back to some form of quiet confidence.

Well, the above is one theory, and the alternate school of thought is people are just plain complacent, having almost anything at the touch of a click, and anything that would require just that additional time/initiative just doesn't seem worth the trouble, not today at least.

I am troubled to see that people in general just want to be "entertained" - I guess YouTube, MTVs, etc. nurtures this "stoning moments". Individuals with admirable charateristics such as patience, perseverance, ... are just getting increasinly difficult to come by.

People want immediate tangible results with minimal effort. I wonder if housework is a good way to illustrate this point, where it requires continuous effort to keep a house looking spanking clean everyday. Its puting the pen back to where you took it from, wiping up the mini spill, picking up after yourself, maybe this illustration is not going where I want it to, but i guess you get my point. Or maybe this following example is a better one, people want to be successful, in a corporate sense, asap. Experience is undervalued perhaps. The young, articulate, charming and seemingly knowledgable dude/chic in their intimidating suits takes the spotlight.

Anyway, back to learned helplessness, I wonder if the less confident/different, has somewhat given up because they don't fit into this mold that the world celebrates. Its too difficult being different being counter cultural. Its too difficult to dress modestly as unlikely you will get ANY attention at all, and eventually you just caved or give up and declare there is no good man on planet earth (try mars or something, ha ha, so totally going off tangent again here).

I guess the million dollar question are for parents, parents to be, how do you bring up a child to have the kind of quiet confidence that will not waver in the world we live in today?

What can we do as individuals to not end up like a huge elephant, that is afraid to break free even though we are shackled with chains that can easily be broken with a gentle tug (given our elephany powers).

I am not sure if this will help, but next time you want to give up or give in, remember this adorable elephany image and be reminded that you have elephany powers/potential, and all the self doubt, or voices you hear in your mind, are the lies people have told you over the years, the low expectations society/community had of you, the failures you have experienced, the absence of praise and encouragement in your life, ...the list goes on. Its the story of the young elephant, that was chained with multiple chains to a tree when it was younger, and its many failed attempts to break free. And today it doesn't even try even though its merely held back by a single branch to the ground and seriously "useless" chain.

In human sense,Its not the shackles on your feet that is holding you back..rather its the invisible shackles in your mind.

You can break free any day now. Why not today?