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 anytime, 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?
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