What do the terms success avoidance and learned helplessness mean?
Success Avoidance Success Avoidance can occur in anyone’s life–not just the successful person–and with any level of accomplishment comes added responsibilities. It usually happens when a person is nearing a point of success, realization of a dream, or completion of a goal. The life style changes that can occur in a person’s life after achieving a set milestone are frightening. Relationships may become strained and new ones must develop. Either subconsciously or consciously the person begins to make choices that result in failure. This limits the changes that occur and thus maintains the status quo. Another Resource on this topic is the book How to Avoid Death by Success by John Q. Baucom, Ph. D. Learned Helplessness Learned Helplessness can be defined (for our purposes) as a human reaction to a situation from which there appears to be no possibility of escape. Learned Helplessness occurs when an individual experiences numerous failures and feels as if there is an external force contr
