The Wall that Isn’t There
Encountering this video of a dog who scuttled around anxious and afraid to walk through a glass door that actually had no glass in its frame, I thought:
#1 This is hilarious, which made me laugh out loud.
But then….
#2 Hmmm. Why is this hilarious? We, as people and not pet dogs, do this all the time involuntarily.
As his owner encourages him and calls to him, providing the enthusiastic reality of there being no glass wall to hit, the dog refuses to come. Any excitable, tail-wagging pet dog desperately wants to run to their owner and shower them with love, but this dog believes deep in his body that he will suffer a hard barrier if he tries. What’s interesting is he even crosses through the threshold a few times, slowly challenging his previous assumptions one body part at a time.
First a foot over the barrier at the 14 second mark… wait- still could be glass there.
Then his head through the opening at 20 seconds… wait- still could be glass there.
Finally at 25 seconds he pushes through and has reached his goal — Yes!
but….
on the way back in he still believes there’s a glass door there and doesn’t make it through at all the second time!
The owner has to eventually “open” the door for him a minute later, providing him a conditioned cue so he could feel comfortable enough to come meet the owner. The trauma of slamming into the glass barrier has programmed this poor pup into only going through the door when it’s opened, and not observing the opportunity to do it faster even when it stares him in the face.
“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
- David Foster Wallace
What Creates the Wall?
Though funny to witness the dog, I couldn’t help but feel sad at the smacking realization that this probably happens to me all the time for where I want to go in life.
Collections of our experiences, trauma, and emotionally heightened events have the greatest effect in teaching us. From this unique learning within each of our lives, we attain our behavioral programming. There are two primary ways our behaviors are conditioned, but we’re going to focus on the primal, instinctual one:
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning was made famous by Ivan Pavlov and his dogs (best animal to observe apparently, judging from the video). It focuses on automatic, involuntary behaviors that come from cues or neutral signals before an involuntary and programmed reflex. This concept of reinforcement, punishment, or cues in life establish our learning, developing our behavioral rules, conditioning, and invisible walls.
How many times was there an opportunity I hesitated to act or not act on that could have changed my life completely? It’s been a challenging endeavor to consistently recognize how my conditioning altered the way I view the world and potentially diverted paths of opportunity for me.
Recognizing and Discovering No Wall
The dog had three pivotal moments in getting on the path to discovering his wall:
He initially had to run into an actual glass door the first few times to discover a wall existed.
He was playful and free to learn about the world around, eventually learning walls might hurt your head if you run into them. Experiences are the strongest forger of patterns and general paradigm creation.
His owner encourages and inspires him to try coming through the “wall”.
He has inspiration and reinforcement close to him, making him quickly aware of new opportunities. Influencers, role models, or external feedback are the key here that inspire you to push your prior-programming to its limits so you tweak and relearn.
He is brave enough to go through the “wall” and discover there isn’t one, expanding his learning and experience.
He is playful and confident once again, confident enough to follow his owner’s encouragement and test the wall. Our external inspiration gained can do this for us, and push us to stay playful, brave, and open to new experiences that challenge our invisible walls.
Where in your life have you created these invisible walls? Where have you stopped, stuttered, hesitated, or anxiously retreated at the idea that a goal wasn’t possible?
Selecting the right environment and influences is key. They help inspire a playful and confident attitude that pushes you to test your limits and make evident your own programming, traumas, and fears. It’s how we can more often see the walls aren’t even there.
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