"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." – Thomas Edison Imagine facing a series of unfortunate events where no matter what you ...

The concept of learned helplessness was first coined by psychologist Martin Seligman in the late 1960s. Although Seligman’s original research was with animals, the application of his theory certainly ...

Learned helplessness. I’d heard the term before, but conflated it with weaponized incompetence, a phenomenon where someone (usually the male partner in a hetero relationship) exerts little or no ...

Imagine my surprise when, nearly eight months ago, commenting on the state of the country as it approached the 2024 presidential election, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted that “Biden ...

A few years ago some friends got a new Golden Retriever puppy named Sugar. When I first met Sugar, she was a ball of fur and energy. Picture this: a golden streak dashing across the yard, eyes ...

In psychology, learned helplessness is a state that occurs after a person has repeatedly experienced a stressful situation. They believe they cannot control or change the situation, so they do not try ...

I learned three big lessons over a three-week period: 1. Leaders, including CEOs and business owners, are like the rest of us. They too can freeze and feel helpless and anxious. 2. Knowledge, like ...

In May, 2002, Martin Seligman, the Director of the Positive Psychology Center, at the University of Pennsylvania, was giving a lecture at the San Diego Naval Base. It had been sponsored by the Joint ...