Get Angry, Cry, or Give Up
Let’s say you have spent considerable time and effort to understand and deal with a task or situation that’s important to you. It could be a new job with somewhat unknown responsibilities, a confusing assignment if you are a student, an entangled relationship, a problematical aspect of a beloved hobby, or a completely unexpected and confounding event that needs to be dealt with (note I am not talking about emergencies, which would be an entirely different blog post!). What do you do? Many such challenges can be met by asking for help, but for some people, asking for help is yet another challenge. They can’t put the exact problem into words, or they are afraid of being irritating or looking less than competent. So, often, people don’t ask for help. What are human responses to difficulties? Here are three common reactions, based on my years of teaching and tutoring: 1. Get angry. This is a great way to relieve tension and shift the blame to someone else. The teacher doesn’
