Giving up- why do we do it?
February 9th 2008 11:14
Giving up is a Generation Y phenomenon, end of. What's that? You think giving up existed before us? Pah! Forfeits and admissions of defeat did not go hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution. The soldiers of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, The Golf Wars, Afghanistan vs. Russia, Russia vs. Japan and so on and so forth did not make their way to Hell without doing their best to deplete the enemy's reserve of human capital! Not seeing things through is a trademark Generation Y and I'm not interested in anything you have to say that's on the contrary.
So why do we do it? Well some statistics I read about 4 years ago revealed that we're 6 times more likely to succeed in a task if we undertake as part of a group than if we attempt it individually. Flimsy although my information is, I've decided to roll with it and try to use it to understand our tendency towards throwing in the towel.
I think part of it is having many more options.
Huh? Many more things are possible today than ever before. You can have various levels of education and still live comfortably. You can be into Chinese food and Finnish music while your neighbour is passionate about saving the Brazilian rainforest and is learning Swahili. With all these choices, you can either find like-minded people to engage in activities with or you can find your interests are rather varied from those of the people around you. Take me for instance, I'm a blogger- no one else I know is. Now blogging isn't that hard, all I have to do is type 250 words about a superficial topic every few days but even so, there are times when my absences are rather prolonged. Now, could you imagine trying to engage in some form of resistance training at 5am in cold, wet conditions while everyone you know and love is fast asleep? My hat goes off to you if you can do that because my butt would remain firmly planted in bed. However if I had a friend I was meant to be training with, I'd find it hard to disappoint them by not turning up so I'd get up and get dressed for them and I get he feeling you would too.
Motivation would also have to be a reason for our lack of willingness to pursue targets.
In the above scenario not wanting to disappoint a friend/training partner became the reason for getting up and getting things done- it seems setting the goal of resistance training wasn't enough.
If you're sitting there going duh Wynona, that's so logical, please stop and begin saying oh how enlightening, whatever would we do without your blog to shed light on the hidden truths of the planet? Well you'd perish, quite probably
So why do we do it? Well some statistics I read about 4 years ago revealed that we're 6 times more likely to succeed in a task if we undertake as part of a group than if we attempt it individually. Flimsy although my information is, I've decided to roll with it and try to use it to understand our tendency towards throwing in the towel.
I think part of it is having many more options.
Huh? Many more things are possible today than ever before. You can have various levels of education and still live comfortably. You can be into Chinese food and Finnish music while your neighbour is passionate about saving the Brazilian rainforest and is learning Swahili. With all these choices, you can either find like-minded people to engage in activities with or you can find your interests are rather varied from those of the people around you. Take me for instance, I'm a blogger- no one else I know is. Now blogging isn't that hard, all I have to do is type 250 words about a superficial topic every few days but even so, there are times when my absences are rather prolonged. Now, could you imagine trying to engage in some form of resistance training at 5am in cold, wet conditions while everyone you know and love is fast asleep? My hat goes off to you if you can do that because my butt would remain firmly planted in bed. However if I had a friend I was meant to be training with, I'd find it hard to disappoint them by not turning up so I'd get up and get dressed for them and I get he feeling you would too.
Motivation would also have to be a reason for our lack of willingness to pursue targets.
In the above scenario not wanting to disappoint a friend/training partner became the reason for getting up and getting things done- it seems setting the goal of resistance training wasn't enough.
If you're sitting there going duh Wynona, that's so logical, please stop and begin saying oh how enlightening, whatever would we do without your blog to shed light on the hidden truths of the planet? Well you'd perish, quite probably
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