Ep. 14: The Power of Agency

On today’s episode of the Being Well Podcast, Dr. Hanson begins a new focus on the fourth of the twelve strengths he’ll be covering throughout this series: Grit. Particularly, this episode explores how to grow agency – an aspect of grit where we feel like a cause rather than an effect.
If you'd like to start making real, positive changes to your brain and your life, but you don't have a lot of extra time, then you may want to check out Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price.
Sponsor Message: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
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The material in this podcast comes in large part from our book Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. If you like the podcast, you'll love the book!
Timestamps:
0:30: What is grit?
0:50: How does physical grit support psychological grit?
4:45: Can we grow grit?
5:45: Why agency is important for growing grit.
6:45: How agency fights against “learned helplessness.”
9:30: How can we “unlearn” learned helplessness?
16:10: What can we do when we ACTUALLY are helpless?
18:00: Being realistic about the amount of power we have over our lives.
19:30: Finding small ways to express agency.
21:00: Focusing on causes rather than effects.
24:55: Recap.

On today’s episode of the Being Well Podcast, Dr. Hanson begins a new focus on the fourth of the twelve strengths he’ll be covering throughout this series: Grit. Particularly, this episode explores how to grow agency – an aspect of grit where we feel like a cause rather than an effect.

If you'd like to start making real, positive changes to your brain and your life, but you don't have a lot of extra time, then you may want to check out Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price.

Sponsor Message: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.

Connect with the show:

The material in this podcast comes in large part from our book Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. If you like the podcast, you'll love the book!

Timestamps:

0:30: What is grit?

0:50: How does physical grit support psychological grit?

4:45: Can we grow grit?

5:45: Why agency is important for growing grit.

6:45: How agency fights against “learned helplessness.”

9:30: How can we “unlearn” learned helplessness?

16:10: What can we do when we ACTUALLY are helpless?

18:00: Being realistic about the amount of power we have over our lives.

19:30: Finding small ways to express agency.

21:00: Focusing on causes rather than effects.

24:55: Recap.