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THE DANGERS OF LEARNED HELPLESSNESS! I recently had a lesson in how easy it is to take on a belief in my own inability. About a month and a half ago, I broke my foot competing in a martial arts tournament. (Despite that, I completed my match and won a silver medal, with a foot broken in two places.) Because of that, I had to wear an orthopedic boot for six weeks and could not go to kung fu practice. It was awkward walking around with that thing on, throwing off my balance and making walking tiring. It did not, however, keep me from any exercise. There were many forms of exercise that it didn’t interfere with at all. Despite that, when my doctor finally told me my foot was healed and the boot was off forever, I looked back and realized that I hadn’t exercised at all for six weeks, not even the things I could have done. Why not? I spent some time thinking about it, and I realized that this injury, and the boot, had changed my view of myself. For that span of time, I did not see myself as athletic and capable, but injured and limited. Looking back, it was amazing to realize how fast, and how easy, that change in self-perception had occurred. This was a great lesson for me. I see now how easy it was to put myself into a limited category, and I realize that I need to be ever more vigilant to resist that kind of process. We all are subjected to things happening to our physical selves from time to time—illness, injuries, things of that nature. When that happens, we have to be very careful not to allow a temporary or partial disability to overwhelm our sense of ourselves, like I did. Focus on what you still can do, not what you can’t, and take action to do those things.  Watch out for the trap of learned helplessness. You’ll get plenty of support from society for falling into the trap, so you have to work hard to protect yourself from it.  And remember to always tell yourself— “I’m Never Done Growing!” --Doug Sohn #success #successmindset #successaftersixty

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Rick Bava

Baby Boomer thought leader- Author of "In Search of the Baby Boomer Generation," - Part of the leadership team at Today's Senior Magazine-- Co Founder of BabyBoomer.org

3mo

We at Today's Senior Magazine encourage our #babyboomer and #senior audience--to read--the latest column-- from Doug Sohn - CEO--of Success After Sixty - Rick Bava - Today's Senior Magazine - www.todayssr.com

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