Trying is an attempt to do something. Seems simple enough, but the confusing part is, starting is the hardest part for many people. Learn 5 Reasons People Stop Trying using the inspirational story of veteran and amputee triathlete Eric McElvenny.
The definition of trying is to make an attempt or effort to do something. Seems simple enough to just begin to do something, but the fact is, this is the hardest part for many people. Eric McElvenny’s (http://ericmcelvenny.com/) fellow officer asking when he was going to do a full Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile marathon) race stirred up some negative emotions as it might in a number of people. Note the fellow officer didn’t ask Eric to “try,” but when?
The challenge of this fellow officer was intentional because Eric needed something big to overcome what happened a few months prior. During a mission, Eric stepped on an IED blowing off his right leg resulting in amputation just above the knee. Annapolis graduate, athletic, and confident before the IED mishap, Eric needed a way to turn things around and make the best of a terrible situation and did.
Progression of Thoughts
Reading Eric’s website and when speaking publicly, the details are too numerous to cover. Months of anguish and self-doubt are part of the process of recovery. When a tragedy like this happens and someone offers a seemingly heartless solution like the aforementioned fellow officer, a simplified progression of Eric’s thought processing might go like this: “Not for me” leading to “That’s ridiculous,” to rising to the challenge and “I gotta do this!”
Simplifying the progression of thoughts that most people go through when confronted with trying something new is not minimizing the challenge. Especially regarding a tragedy, the battle is in the mind to stop the excuses and just start. A common stopping point is the “not for me” with an added “I can’t” which is really an “I won’t.” What Eric realized is that trying something new, out of the comfort zone, and even seemingly outlandish was beneficial. The redirect of focus to something positive doesn’t allow the negative to dominate the mind.
Reasons people give for being hesitant to try new things seem to be valid excuses, but are golden opportunities being lost? A well-researched book, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, is full of experiments of people emotionally making a decision and then justifying it with logic. Thankfully, only a few have to deal with something as serious as Eric’s challenge. The key to overcoming the challenge is to get clarity of purpose and see beyond the obvious. The clarity for Eric is he took control of the situation and tried something radical to redirect the focus.
5 Reasons People Stop Trying
Deception and irrationality enter in to hide the real issue with a logical solution that really doesn’t address the problem. Although numerous reasons with multiple variations exist, here is an attempt to identify the top five that stop people from trying:
Misleading self-efficacy
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right (Henry Ford). Self-efficacy is a person’s perceived capabilities. In many instances, people greatly underestimate their capabilities. Independence is great except relying only on personal thinking limits a person’s ability to succeed. Getting the thoughts of others is necessary to reach full potential. Imagine a football team not having a coach or a military unit without a ranking leader. History records numerous people reaching way beyond perceived capabilities because others believed in them.
Fear of failure
Two prominent aspects of this occur. The obvious one embarrassment. Learning to ski involves a lot of falling before mastering the skill. A hidden aspect is to put forth minimal effort using that as an excuse in case failure occurred.
Safety / comfort
A good question for this perspective is, “Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?” Realizing different personalities have different risk aversion levels, failing to try new things greatly limits perspective and potential. Everyone knows the person that eats the same food. They go to the same place for vacation annually for decades. Some date the same person for years without committing. Others refuse to try anything new to stay comfortable. All these things hinder growth and living life to the fullest.
False assumptions
Basing decisions with inappropriate or unreliable information causes a lot of problems. An attitude of wondering if anyone cares, nothing matters, or it’s impossible defeats any attempt to start. Some might call this a pity party. Everybody has them, but to what degree and how long?
Overwhelm
Making mountains out of mole hills, paralysis analysis, creating monsters, are all colloquial phrases to describe overwhelm. The solution is obvious to everyone else, but perspective is lost and the pile of urgent things becomes blurred resulting in just shutting down not knowing where to begin. Others can easily see multiple solutions to try. For example, financial planners that get people out of debt easily pick out one bill to begin paying off with a strategic budget that brings success when followed.
An Alka-Seltzer commercial from the 70’s did a promotion. Country western, soul, and polka singers sang the phrase. Even Barney the purple dinosaur encouraged people with the words “try it you’ll like it.” Yet, only a few try new things. Misleading perceptions, fear of failure, comfortableness, false assumptions, and overwhelm are rationalizations that form habits limiting enormous potential people have.
The Wright brothers, Charles Lindberg, and Martin Luther King Jr. battled with the five obstacles and more, but started by trying different things.
“Do or do not. There is no try,” is Yoda’s comment in training Luke Skywalker. I have to go against the Force here and say that was bad advice. Who knows how many Eric McElvenny’s there are out there that can make a difference in the world. Don’t stop trying!
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Everyone experiences happiness at one time or another, but only a minority consider life to be flourishing. The 5 components of the PERMA Model (Martin E. P. Seligman) provide a road map to follow and make a flourishing life a reality.
Everyone experiences happiness at one time or another, but only a minority consider life to be flourishing and are not even sure what that means. Chucky (not his real name) begins the weekend program for delinquent teenage boys and immediately stands out for three reasons. He is bigger than everyone else, mentally slower, and sad to the point of appearing to merely survive.
Chucky is a special needs student and cannot read or write well. As in any group, a status level is evident and Chucky goes to the bottom of the list due to the obvious mental and emotional challenges.
Finding The Positive
The program format is to leave the past behind and focus on gifts and talents finding the boys doing something right. The boys start the weekend by forming a circle to learn each other’s first names. The exercise continues until everyone (including staff) can name all the other boys and staff. Name memory is a challenge for most participants when these weekends begin, but to Chucky even more so confirming he is “different.”
The boys are aware in this program that in each weekend’s evaluation, belittling talk is unacceptable, but the nonverbal expressions range from holding back laughing to arrogance regarding Chuck. Despite Chucky’s valiant efforts to remember the names, extra assistance is necessary for him to complete the task confirming initial impressions he is “slower” than everyone else, but it gets worse.
Every weekend involves reading questions on a handout and writing some goals. Chucky fails at both, but an unexpected surprise is one of the boys immediately goes to assist him in the process. The relationship that forms as a result of this is the beginning of Chucky encountering the experience of what it is like to flourish.
Positive Psychology Breakthrough
Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman is the father of the field of positive psychology and an expert on the concept of flourishing. Dr. Seligman views the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which serves as the principal authority for psychiatric diagnoses, as primarily focusing on mental illness at the expense of failing to acknowledge the strengths people have.
Dr. Seligman also realized the classification of all drugs as either curative in intention or cosmetic, only treating symptoms. When starting the field of positive psychology, Seligman realized every single drug on the psycho-therapeutic treatment list was cosmetic. Most of biological psychology to this day gives up on cures. For all of Frued’s shortcomings he was not into treating symptoms, but for pursuing a cure.
PERMA Model
On that basis, Seligman’s research among other findings confirmed his thinking that focusing on the positive and curative is much more effective than curtailing misery. The result is the PERMA Model:
Positive Emotion
The glass is half full, make lemonade out of lemons, and good, better, best, don’t you dare rest until your good gets better and your better gets best. Focusing on the positive without denying the reality of limitations and the negative is a practice.
Engagement
Otherwise known as flow. Doing challenging, but not overwhelming tasks, activities, or work that transcends time and is enjoyable and fulfilling.
Relationships
There is no substitute for caring people to interact with in life.
Meaning
Having a cause greater than oneself is essential to living a life that is flourishing. What really matters? What is the purpose of one’s existence? “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain
Accomplishment
Everyone needs to be good at something and look back at life with a sense of achievement. The question is not to ask “How smart am I?” but to ask, “How am I smart?” Find that smart, be diligent to develop it, and flourish.
Chucky began this flourishing concept with a relationship with the other young man that was helping him to read and write goals. Living a flourishing life begins with any single or combination of items listed in the Seligman model. The relationship building of the overseeing staff with Chucky was intentional throughout the weekend, but happening with a peer right from the beginning amplified the effect. Positive Emotion was a side effect of the peer interaction – acceptance by one leading student, spills over to others in the group.
The project for this weekend happened to be community service and involved chopping wood. A physically demanding exercise, yet boys generally like doing it. Just something about putting an axe to wood for guys! Chucky watched and then it was his turn. Some instruction with safety emphasized and Chucky was ready to go and boy did he go!
At least one talent of Chucky was evident, he knew how to chop wood. The other boys stood in awe of how powerful, skilled, and enduring Chucky was. His chopping lasted at least twice as long as the others with more productivity. Chopping wood, Chucky experienced engagement or flow. The group, with Chucky leading the way, far exceeded expectations.
Going from the lowest in the group to high status was very meaningful for Chucky. One simple positive action of chopping wood in one day did more to address the trouble Chucky got placed in the program for than months of counseling. Martin Seligman’s conditions of flourishing were met that weekend.
The weekend experience of Chucky hopefully carried over to everyday life. Sadly, unless Chucky persisted in re-creating the components of the PERMA Model in the various areas of life, flourishing is minimal. Unfortunately, that is the case for most people. Living a life of flourishing must be intentional.
Three Flourish Blockers
The benefits of living a flourishing life seem to be a no-brainer especially with the PERMA Model available. Who doesn’t want to live life to the fullest? Assuming that is the case, what stops people from doing it? Three things come to mind all based on stages of growth:
Lack of Understanding
Hearing about flourishing is not enough. How many times do people let fear of failure steal an opportunity to learn and get out of the comfort zone? A commitment to understand despite looking foolish is necessary. Chucky had positive emotion accepting all the help offered with no guarantees of success.
Lack of Follow Through
Finding a motivational seminar to get all excited is easy, but rarely are the concepts implemented. New Year Resolutions abound, but most fall short. A realization of one’s purpose to find meaning in life takes effort and is continually refined as the years go by.
Worries and Deception
Making a commitment to take action is great, but getting through all that without letting cares and worries choke out the ongoing effort to implement the PERMA Model takes grit. Second-guessing and ambivalence can cripple individuals and steal constructive engagement. Successful entrepreneurs know failing frequently, fast, and forward is part of the process.
Hearing and Understanding
Every step of the way openness to learning needs to happen. Better to keep things simple. Determine what is necessary to achieve the desired outcome and divide that into a reasonable amount of steps to undertake. Listen and learn until that step, if important to the overall goal, is understood. Celebrate key achievements along the way as well as the final accomplishment.
The stories like Chucky’s do not happen often enough. The good thing is that learning, understanding, and practicing the guidelines of the PERMA Model provides a roadmap for anyone willing to get out of the comfort zone. Everyone has problems and gets beat down. No doubt, getting back up is hard. The question is do the problems cause people to perish or choose to PERMA to flourish?
The flourishing life is a choice, make it yours!
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Flow is a psychological term describing a state of mind where there is energizing focus, full engagement, and a lost sense of time. Practicing and mastering it leads a deep sense of purpose and meaning in work-life integration.
A journey into a wondrous land of imagination that is a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. There is a fifth dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. Sound familiar, especially to those of older generations? The words are a mix of various opening narrations of an early 60s TV program called The TwiLight Zone, but also eloquently describe the concept of flow.
Flow
Flow is a psychological term describing a state of mind where there is energizing focus, full engagement, and a lost sense of time. As far as being a fifth dimension, it begs the question where did the 4th dimension go, but that’s another discussion. Flow is a “twilight zone” hopefully in a positive sense that makes it a desirable goal to achieve.
Flow is a regular part of a fulfilling vocation. People exist that actually enjoy going to work each day. Warren Buffet, born in 1930, does not continue working way beyond what others consider retirement age because of financial problems. Chances are, Warren derives a sense of satisfaction from work that involves a lot of flow. The day passes quickly achieving one goal after another leading to immense gain in the game of finances.
Challenging video games achieve flow for teens. The flow of a wonderful performance takes an audience to another dimension. The better the artist is at stirring the imagination through sight and sound, the more flow takes place. As in any good thing, when taken to the extreme, the benefits diminish. In the book The Rise of Superman, Steven Kotler describes how optimal performance and being your best turns into ultimate performance or death is the result. Some extreme sports demand this level of excellence.
Common Yet Elusive
Everyone has experienced some form of flow, but may not have noticed enough to methodically reproduce it. A very common experience is “falling” in love. Where the line of infatuation and love cross is definitely a twilight zone, but somewhere in the vastness and timelessness is flow. Couples with this chemistry, at least initially, talk for hours, have starry-eyes with a mere thought, and fail to see any faults of the other person.
The challenge therein lies, if this flow is so wonderful, is consistent reproduction possible? Part of the problem is a flow environment is different for the various facets and phases of life. The aforementioned “falling” in love or playing video games are a couple of the easiest to achieve without trying. The 70 percent of people lacking excitement about work confirms flow is elusive. The divorce of couples or mere co-existence in a relationship is evidence of loss of the capacity to interact with flow.
The best way to understand how to achieve flow is to go to the source and that would be psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The name has a mystique that easily qualifies for a TwiLight Zone episode and comes from a village in Transylvania. Really. Truth is stranger than fiction here.
Mihaly’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience identifies eight components of flow:
Rules and goals are clear
Games all have rules and a defined outcome that identifies the winner. Why do people in most areas of life fail to self-impose clear rules and goals? An effort requiring focus and time is necessary. Once rules and goals are clear, playing the game becomes second nature and the flow or enjoyment of the experience takes place.
Feedback is immediate
Getting a first down in a football game, scoring well on a quiz, or a smile are all examples of immediate feedback. Where the challenge lies is in the undertakings that are literally and figuratively bigger picture. An artist sculpting a large statue needs to create stages that give immediate feedback. Forming a clay statue and critiquing it, rather than chipping away at a huge block of granite is wise. Having clarity with a number of clear steps to accomplish positions a person to receive immediate feedback. Each step brings energy and flow building up to the big goal.
Challenge
Matching the skills of a participant to achieve flow is an art. Make a challenge too difficult and overwhelm sets in with the person giving up too soon. But things that are too easy result in boredom and eventually result in abandonment of the task. Finding the “challenge range” between the extremes of overwhelm and boredom creates the conditions to maximize the opportunity for flow to occur.
A perfect “challenge range” regarding skill set is useless without focus. Focus is more than a removal of distractions, but a passion to accomplish the goal. A sincere desire to complete the project, win the game, or benefit humanity brings the persistence needed to follow through and succeed.
Removal of distractions
Paying way too much attention to the urgent at the expense of the important kills, steals, and destroys flow. The electronic age has provided more distractions than anytime in history. Some homes have constant “noise” in that the sound of fake ocean waves from a smart phone app are on all night. The sad reason is either so much noise is in the neighborhood or the person needs some noise, because silence hinders sleep.
On the positive side there are still places in the world, apart from a sound booth, that it is so quiet it’s loud. One of the major appeals of the wilderness to those who love it.
Control
Mario Andretti, a renowned racecar driver stated, “If everything is under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” Obviously, Mario had some control, but winning and flow involve some scary moments. Likewise, if the event involves total control, distractions occur, it fails as a challenge, and flow is lost.
Loss of a sense of self-consciousness
The last two components of flow are as mysterious as the twilight zone. People realize what is happening, but something different is taking place on a subconscious level. What appears to be another dimension is when phenomenal things are done without thinking about it. Things are just flowing. Typing much faster than normal for an extended time period with few or no mistakes involves the loss of a sense of self-consciousness. The person can see and feel the faster-than-normal finger movement, but have no idea why or how it is happening.
Time transcendence
Another twilight zone factor is the loss of a sense of time. People in an intense state of flow have lost track of hours, sometimes parts of days. Sylvester Stallone wrote the original Rocky script in a few days. What role did the many failures and experiences of Sylvester preceding this flow of writing play to make the script as good as it was? Not an easy question to answer.
Achieving Flow
Flow has been metaphorically described in this article as the fifth dimension and the twilight zone because it is a mystery. Many aspects of science can be proven and deemed a law, but although flow is mastered by many to optimize performance, it is still highly subjective.
The previous mentioned author Steven Kotler does in-depth analysis and a great job of identifying ways to create the best environments and conditions to generate flow. However, all the conditions of Mihaly and Steven can be met and a person still may not achieve flow. There is more to it than going down a checklist and presto, here comes flow!
The good thing is the art of achieving flow can be practiced and mastered, especially in a particular area of expertise. Personal experience is the best way to describe what happens during flow without necessarily understanding exactly why or how it occurred. Once experienced, flow is so rewarding repeating the experience seems to be incentive enough to make it to happen again, but why aren’t more people striving to do this?
The problem is intention and effort. Mihaly lists the eight conditions covered in this article and Steven has 17 triggers to enhance the occurrence of flow. Achieving flow is complex! Overwhelm is common (one of the ways to surely hinder flow) as many give up and fail to pursue the experience.
Summary
Like anything else, mastering flow takes work. Flow “just happens” randomly, but that is the exception. Random incidences are beneficial, but consistency leads to a flourishing life. People having regular occurrences of flow report a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life.
The final conclusion, know that the way to go is to get in the flow!
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What’s the Zone Of Proximal Development (ZPD), Yoda, Luke, and Dagobah have in common? Jedi training. Vygotsky’s theory of Cognitive Development helps student learning and growth. Teacher Yoda used ZPD concepts to give Luke the opportunity to excel at being a Jedi Knight.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Yoda and Luke Skywalker are on Dagobah and in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)… what? For the rabid fans of Star Wars, it’s a safe bet ZPD is not recognized as part of any of the multiple movie releases.
Zone of Proximal Development
So what does the ZPD have to do with Yoda and Luke on Dagobah? Everything when training to be a leader for the cause of the Force is concerned. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky came up with ZPD as a theory of cognitive development based on a student’s ability to learn and progress. In this regard, Yoda did things right giving Luke the opportunity to excel at being a Jedi Knight, but things got complicated.
Before addressing the complications, a review is in order to identify what was so good about Yoda’s training and what ZPD components surfaced:
Yoda, feigning ignorance as an old and insignificant creature, revealed Luke’s lack of patience and failure to see the big picture. Yoda’s silliness was really an initial ZPD assessment to determine Luke’s level of maturity and ability.
The training regiment – levitation, coordination, agility, trust in the Force, etc. – pushed Luke to the highest level of challenge. Particularly when fighting Darth Vader, the enemy, in the cave only to reveal Luke’s dark side.
Dagobah was a great distraction-free training ground, like bootcamp to bring about change.
In the beginning of the training, Yoda was both figuratively and literally on Luke’s back to coach and draw out the best in him.
The concept of ZPD is a student initially has a basic set of skills developed to a particular level. Interaction in the early stages requires much assistance of the teacher in the upper end of challenge of the student’s ZPD. Hard enough to eliminate boredom, but not beyond current capabilities resulting in overwhelm.
Cognitive Development
As the student cognitively grows and develops, the zone moves in the direction of the instruction. The learning process eventually results in the student accomplishing independently what was before only possible with much assistance from the teacher.
As a freshman entering college, a student overwhelmed in one or more of the classes needs to understand it’s okay to ask for help. Getting help sooner rather than later is the difference between a good grade and failure or at least a reduction in stress. Adding one or two more problem classes is what contributes to a high drop out rate for freshman.
Getting Help
Asking for help and getting the closer supervision to overcome the initial overwhelm makes a huge difference. The student usually only needs to be in the ZPD for a short time to be self-reliant. Even if an understanding of the course work does not occur, the mentor is an objective third party helping redirect the student on a better path.
Complications arise when either the teacher or the student misalign in what the overall goal is – get on a successful vocational path. In Luke’s case, friends are in need of help cutting short the training to develop all the skills of a Jedi Knight, despite Yoda’s stern warnings. The saga continues with Luke paying a price for failure to complete the training, but great movies tell a story people relate to and that involves a conflict that usually all works out well. Unfortunately, irrational actions of students despite warnings from competent mentors rarely have happy endings.
Both super heroes and students make mistakes and some parts of the saga of life fall short. Keep trying. Refusing to quit in the pursuit of a life’s calling is worth it. The ZPD is only a theory, but something that is a great model for young and old to follow to bring about growth and development for positive change. Some scholars cringe at the thought of broadening the applications of Vygotsky’s concepts from students to adults, but the benefits of expanded use of the theory is worth the risk.
ZPD is more than a teacher instructing a student. The “zone” is not a clearly marked playing field in many instances and what appears to be a lack of student capabilities may be failure to properly assess. Teacher assistance needs to taper accordingly to let the student develop an inherent skill and cognitive ability. Intensive initial challenges generate helplessness at times and results in giving up.
Another example is the relationship of a boxer and trainer. The trainer assesses the boxer and directs the zone of training physically and mentally. Actual experience and skill level in the ring determines future competition. Skill levels of opponents increase as the boxer improves. The ZPD moves upward as the boxer gains strength, skill, and confidence. Regardless of where the boxer ends up, if the trainer optimized the ZPD, it is highly likely to be a positive experience for both.
Summary
Implement the ZPD consistently as both teacher and student. Make it an auto-zone of growth and development, reducing life’s twilight zones, and scoring consistently in the end zone of maximum goal achievement. Get in the Zone… of Proximal Development!
Following are the sources used for the content of the article:
Doolittle, P. E. (1997). Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development as a theoretical foundation for cooperative learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 8(1), 83-103.
Kozulin, A., Gindis, B., Ageyev, V. S., Miller, S.M. (2003). Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context. Cambridge U. Press, NY
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech. In L. S. Vygotsky, Collected works (Vol. 1, pp.39-285). New York: Plenum.
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A scene from a popular animated film with the song Whistle While You Work has lots to offer to provide a very effective attitude brain hack. How to get a good attitude when things are a mess is the underlying principle.
Good Attitude
The older you are the more familiar you would be with the Whistle While You Work song, but even small kids know this from Disney’s first (1937) animated movie Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.
The song exemplifies making the best out of the situation you’re put in, play the cards that you have. Does that only happen in Disney movies? I’m not really sure, but do you whistle while you go to school? Do you make lemonade out of a bad work situation or relationship?
Snow is in a situation and chased by a wicked woman and friendly animals help shuffle her off to the seven dwarfs home. They are not there but are at work. She sees the house is messy and unclean so figures while waiting for the dwarfs to get home, it would be good to clean up the place. She gets all the animals to help her too. Normally these critters would really make a mess out of a home, but this is a Disney film.?
Brain Hacks
She’s singing a song, humming a tune, the birds are whistling. Are these things brain hacks? What is a brain hack? It is manipulating neurons in our brain, shifting around our thinking so we can direct how we want to think. Can we direct the attitude to be positive? Brain hackers would say yes.
The fact that this tune resonates with people even after not having heard it in years makes it a brain hack.
A happy feeling arises from the deep catacombs of the brain. These are the kind of things that stick and are easy to remember without any attempt to memorize them. This is the ultimate brain hack.
There is no ultimate explanation how this works although a lot of research has been done to validate key parts of brain hacking. Physical actions and moods affect each other reciprocally. The most effective combination includes the actions and emotions inclusive of having heart-felt meaning leading to keeping that memory.
Famous author C.S. Lewis states, “Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” So was it the humming, the dancing, the singing, the rhyming of the lyrics, the little animals jumping around, the light-heartedness, the tone, and the cadence (how fast / slow Snow sang)? Was it any of these or all of these? Yes! All of these things packaged together really make an impact. Each one of these alone can be impactful, but all working together is really powerful.
Intentional Goals
The writers and producers of Snow White had some goals in mind when first thinking about the movie. Of course they wanted to touch the hearts of people, but a lot of intention went into this. All of the scenes involved intense thinking as well as the entire movie to make a profit for Disney Studios. The story was based on a Grimm Fairy Tale that was not nearly as light-hearted and fun as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
They wanted the movie to succeed, but did they realize this would be one of the most profitable movies of all time? Although that is a dream of every movie-maker, they had no idea it would be this big.
Giving Hope
Snow White has turned around attitudes of millions of people. Does it work all the time and for every situation, especially tragedies? No, but for many, a simple thing like humming, dancing, like Snow does in the movie is all that’s needed. The integration of the physical movement and emotional meaning that touches hearts is very effective at turning around a bad attitude and giving hope.
Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust and wrote a book on the meaning of life. Those in the death camps that had something to hope for and kept a good attitude survived whereas those with an attitude of hopelessness died.
Bad attitudes have trouble co-existing with whistling, humming, singing, and dancing. You can derail bad attitudes with physical activity and don’t forget the happy animals with Snow White. Merely thinking of pets comforts people.
Getting any of these things in combination or alone are very powerful to alleviate a bad mood and get a good attitude. Snow White Therapy is over 80 years old and simple, but don’t underestimate the power of a whistle.
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Simplifying the progression of thoughts that most people go through when confronted with trying something new is not minimizing the challenge. Especially regarding a tragedy, the battle is in the mind to stop the excuses and just start. A common stopping point is the “not for me” with an added “I can’t” which is really an “I won’t.” What Eric realized is that trying something new, out of the comfort zone, and even seemingly outlandish was beneficial. The redirect of focus to something positive doesn’t allow the negative to dominate the mind.
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right (Henry Ford). 
Making mountains out of mole hills, paralysis analysis, creating monsters, are all colloquial phrases to describe overwhelm. The solution is obvious to everyone else, but perspective is lost and the pile of urgent things becomes blurred resulting in just shutting down not knowing where to begin. Others can easily see multiple solutions to try. For example, financial planners that get people out of debt easily pick out one bill to begin paying off with a strategic budget that brings success when followed.
Engagement
At least one talent of Chucky was evident, he knew how to chop wood. The other boys stood in awe of how powerful, skilled, and enduring Chucky was. His chopping lasted at least twice as long as the others with more productivity. Chopping wood, Chucky experienced engagement or flow. The group, with Chucky leading the way, far exceeded expectations.
As the student cognitively grows and develops, the zone moves in the direction of the instruction. The learning process eventually results in the student accomplishing independently what was before only possible with much assistance from the teacher.
Both super heroes and students make mistakes and some parts of the saga of life fall short. Keep trying. Refusing to quit in the pursuit of a life’s calling is worth it. The ZPD is only a theory, but something that is a great model for young and old to follow to bring about growth and development for positive change. Some scholars cringe at the thought of broadening the applications of Vygotsky’s concepts from students to adults, but the benefits of expanded use of the theory is worth the risk.
Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust and wrote a book on the meaning of life. Those in the death camps that had something to hope for and kept a good attitude survived whereas those with an attitude of hopelessness died.
