How to Go From Learned Helplessness to Learned Optimism

Simply Worth It: Physician Negotiations with Dr. Linda Street

When we’ve had our fair share of negative experiences or heard no too many times, we develop a “why try if it won’t work out” mindset. In psychology, it’s called learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness pops up all over the place in medicine, and yes, even in our negotiations. How does this mindset hamper our efforts to advocate for ourselves?

Why does it make us unnecessarily powerless?

In this episode, I’m going to talk about the cure for learned helplessness, and how a few mindset tweaks can change everything.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode

- Learned helplessness and self-fulfilling prophecies

Do we fate ourselves to negative outcomes when we’re under the influence of this mindset?

- Why learned helplessness removes all our power

We all have the power to incite change in a situation or to at least control how we respond, but how do we access it?

- How learned helplessness shows up

If we’re getting stonewalled in a negotiation, or our employers have a long track record of telling us no, how do we avoid the conclusion that there’s no point trying?