Learned Helplessness Hack: How to Avoid Blind Spots

We are all prone to be limited by blind spots in our thinking. We experience our routine, over and over. We’re presented with similar decisions, conversations, interactions. The way we think becomes a habit. Our ability to innovate, “think out of the box”, and pose new solutions to persistent problems becomes severely impaired. It’s a form of learned helplessness and it’s human nature – one of our great weak spots.

How to Spot Blind Spots and Avoid Learned Helplessness

When elephants are small, they are tied to a post with a strong rope to keep them from running away.

When they’re grown, a thin cord is all it takes to keep them from fleeing.

They’ve learned they can’t get far.

This illustrates the impact of what’s called habitual thinking.

When we are limited by our own habitual thinking, like the elephants, we are said to have scatomas – or blind spots.

What Causes Learned Helplessness and Blind Spots?

Blind spots happen when our life becomes too mundane.  As we often call it, “the same old grind”.

If we experience the same things and interact with the same people, we’re likely to think the same thoughts.

We may become blind to other scenarios and other ways of thinking.

This stagnation makes it hard to imagine new possibilities, challenge the status quo, or solve problems.

We cease to innovate and improve.

The lack of stimulation also contributes to aging and depression and may also impact our feelings of self-worth.

How Can We Avoid Learned Helplessness?

If we don’t have the time, freedom or money to wander and seek out exotic new things, how can we avoid these deadly blind spots? How can we inject novelty that will help ensure we’re seeing all of life’s possibilities?

Experts recommend we do something new or different every single day.  Doing new things helps keep our brains healthy as it stimulates new “synapses to snap”.

This is one reason why vacations often feel rejuvenating.  But we can’t always take a vacation!

So here are 10 (no or low cost) suggestions of other ways to keep our thoughts fresh and avoid learned helplessness:

1. Turn down a road you have never driven down before.
2. Do an everyday task with your non-dominant hand.
3. Talk to a stranger in a shopping line.
4. Go to a bookstore (or browse online if you must!). Pick a book about an unfamiliar subject and read one page.  Or choose a book by an author you’ve never read before.
5. Eat breakfast for dinner and vice versa.
6. Try a new restaurant or recipe or food you’ve never eaten.
7. Subscribe to a newsfeed or podcast or Ted Talk on a subject you know nothing about.  Listen to a different radio station or playlist.
8. Cut or color (or stop coloring) your hair; or try a new shade of lipstick or nail polish.
9. Try on clothes or shoes you wouldn’t normally pick out for yourself.
10. If you can manage it – plan a weekend or day trip to somewhere you have never been or take a class in a subject you know nothing about.

Why It’s Important to Mix Things Up

It’s essential to mix things up to keep the new experiences novel to you. Maybe try a new playlist one day, walk a new route another day, try a recipe, do a puzzle, part your hair on the left instead of the right, you get the idea!

Even doing something minor that differs from routine can have long lasting benefits, because it begins to build the basis of a habit.

And establishing the habit of doing new things enables our brains to more readily see opportunities and choices we may not have seen before.

Other Benefits of Trying New Things

Doing new things helps us to “think outside the box”. This ability is essential to good problem solving and to help our brains open up to innovation. As we become more creative thinkers, we also become more resilient when challenges and difficult times arise.

So, let’s promise ourselves that we’ll do something new, even if it’s something small, every day. 

Thank you as always for reading.

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KindCompassCoach

Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a private sector corporate executive and 15 years (and counting) as a consultant and coach. The common thread through her professional life has been a commitment to compassionate leadership, including leading and mentoring current and future leaders, and women from all walks of life. KindCompassCoach articles are backed by research and include facts and advice from a wide variety of experts. Joan is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.