Learned helplessness
Due to a series of unfortunate events, the
regularly scheduled blogs have not been happening. I apologize, it's been busy
here. Mostly busy good, but still busy. My life is essentially a cross between
crisis management, cat herding and plate spinning. That's life for most people
in start ups, whether it's a company, a band or a church, there's always more
work than there is time and when you enjoy the work it all gets blurry and you
discover that august 15th is tax time and you're not sure if your health
insurance bill has been paid in oh.. 6 months... (don't worry mom, it's on
autobill). I haven't had time to shoot lately, I'm still waiting on one last
cable to test out the portable ceiling mark IV, the
pointable
portable ceiling. Yes, I promise I'll post directions on how to make your own,
it's not hard. I did get a great test picture and the new one works beautifully
but I was forbidden to use it for concerns that it made someone look fat.
So on to the real
blog.
Today we're going to talk about learned
helplessness. (hopefully I'm not repeating myself here, I do that a
lot).
In a study they took 2 sets of dogs
and both were subjected to electric shocks. One set of dogs was given a complex
way to turn off the electric shock which they soon figured out. The other set
of dogs just had to endure it. They then took both sets of dogs and put them in
new boxes. Both dogs were shocked and both dogs could turn the current off with
a simple press of their nose on a bar. The dogs that had learned earlier that
they could turn off the electric shock soon figured out how to do it. The dogs
that weren't allowed to turn off the shock earlier simply lay down without
trying. The researchers termed this: "learned
helplessness".
It's something I've seen a
lot of lately around artists. To me artists are like sharks. The myth is that
sharks have to keep swimming forward or they die. Doing anything on your own
requires a sense of forward motion. Whether it's working out, doing art or
starting your own business, if you hit a point where it seems like all of your
effort is providing no change, you're in danger of learned helplessness. The
feeling that for all of your effort, it's just not quite enough to get you over
the edge. That you are swimming in the ocean with no land in
sight.
This is the danger. Not that you
fail, but that you get to this point.
It takes
a lot of forms, sometimes you just lay down, sometimes you get cynical and
bitter and take potshots at other people. The worst part is, you develop
reasons not to try anything.
If you feel
like you're getting to this point or can see it coming down the road, you might
want to think of some changes.
tips for
dealing with learned helplessness
1.
change something up. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. If that
doesn't work, go around. What is your version of going
around?
2. take a break and do something
that has clear achieveable goals. I wondered why I used to play videogames so
much during frustrating songwriting periods and the reason is because videogames
have clear goals which can be achieved with effort. That and I like videogames.
Maybe you should paint a room or fix something that's been bugging you. Try
something that pairs effort with reward. It's a bit like dog training
yourself.
3. take stock of your situation
and ask yourself if you've actually arrived already. I know a couple very
successful people who don't feel like they've arrived because they either set
the bar higher then where they're at or they can't shake that feeling that
they're fooling everyone and that it will all go away in a second. Sometimes we
spend our whole life running away from who we were in junior
high.
4. take a break in general. Even
though it doesn't feel like you can, for the most part, life is like a
basketball game, you take shots, you make them or miss them, but it's how you
play the game over the long haul. Take mini breaks. If you work too hard and
burn yourself out, you will be much less productive.
5. get help. Trying sucks. Work sucks.
It sucks less when you fight it together. If you can, build a team to do what
you're trying to do. Work out in
pairs.
6. the most important thing though
is to fight learned helplessness and keep trying. It might not mean trying
whatever you're doing now, but it means never stop trying to improve yourself,
your life, your world. You stop moving, you stop trying, you camp, you will
stagnate.
7. shock cats instead of dogs
when doing experiments.
As always, I
write these words from the trenches of my own battles. Pimpin ain't easy.
:)
Here's to everyone who never quit when
things got hard.
I'm off to write a
music video treatment for stand in the rain, which seems to be our next single
for columbia records.
Posted: Mon - August 28, 2006 at 12:25 PM
