As
a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the
fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied
to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the
elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some
reason, they did not.
He saw a trainer nearby
and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get
away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller
we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to
hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot
break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try
to break free.”
The man was amazed. These
animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they
believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
Like
the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief
that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?
Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.