APN10 - Helplessness & Optimism

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More Wisdom in Less Time. This is a mini chapter from Brian's book A Philosopher's Notes. You can find it on Amazon.

That leads us to the second section of the book, which is On Optimism. Each of the sections begins with a series of quotes that are my favorites on the given theme. For now, let's look at some of my favorites on Optimism. We'll start with a quote from Marcus Aurelius. He says, your mind will be like its habitual thoughts, for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thought as, for example, where life is possible at all, a right life is possible. The next quote is from the Buddha who says, our life is shaped by our mind. We become what we think. Confucius tells us, the Master said, if out of the 300 songs I had to take one phrase to cover all my teachings, I would say, let there be no evil in your thoughts. Viktor Frankl tells us, everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of the human freedoms. To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Sonia Liebomersky tells us, all that is required to become an optimist is to have the goal and to practice it. The more you rehearse optimistic thoughts, the more natural and ingrained they will become. With time, they will be part of you and you will have made yourself into an altogether different person. And finally, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi tells us, a person can make himself happy or miserable regardless of what is actually happening outside, just by changing the contents of consciousness. We all know individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome just through the force of their personalities. This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others and and justly so. It is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well. To develop this trait, one must find ways to order consciousness so as to be in control of feelings and thoughts. It is best not to expect shortcuts will do the trick. So we are in the Optimism section. The little intro to this section is optimism. It all starts with optimism. If we can't tame those gremlins in our minds and learn to shape the contents of our consciousness, the rest of this stuff doesn't matter. The first mini chapter in our optimism section is Helplessness and Optimism. Optimism. It's principle number one. All the great teachers from Aurelius and the Buddha to the modern gurus and scientists. Teachers tell us the same thing. If we can't control the contents of our consciousness and tame those gremlins of fear and anxiety and self doubt, none of the rest of this stuff matters. Period. Before Martin Seligman started studying optimism and happiness and meaning, he spent a couple decades studying the opposite of helplessness. Imagine a study with two dogs. They're both given shocks at random intervals. One can press a lever to stop the shocks, the other can't. The first dog quickly discovers how to stop the shocks and is fine. The other dog, the one who can't do anything about the shocks, eventually gives up and curls into a helpless little ball in the corner as the shocks continue. Eek. That's part one of the study. Part two. Those same dogs are put into a new environment. This time, both dogs can easily avoid the shocks. The healthy dog quickly discovers the trick and is fine. The other dog, even though it now has the power to change things, just gives up, curling into a ball as the shocks continue and continue and continue. The dog has learned helplessness. And so have we. After being shocked by life so many times throughout our lives. Too often we learn helplessness and just give up, forgetting that even though we might have been morons many times before, we always have the ability to choose a more effective response to whatever challenges we're currently facing. Know this Choosing to curl up in the corner or in bed as we helplessly let life shock us again and again is the quickest way to ensure we're depressed and in the process, destroy our psychological and immunological health. The antidote We've got to learn optimism. So let's learn how. But first, how about a look at crazy monkeys and ants?

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