Circus Elephant
Ever see a circus elephant anchored to the ground? A small chain fastens to a metal collar tied around the elephant’s leg. And the chain is attached to a small wooden peg driven into the ground.
15,000 pound elephant could yank that wooden peg right out of the ground or break that little chain in two.
But the elephant doesn’t do that. Why not?
When the elephant was a baby, her trainers used the same collar/peg/chain method. At that young age, the contraption was indeed strong enough to prevent the animal from breaking away. And break away that elephant tried!
But pulling at that chain every day caused a cut to appear on the poor elephant’s leg, exposing the sore sensitive layers of skin and tissue, forming a deep wound. It hurt so bad that, realizing her effort was fruitless, the baby elephant stopped trying to escape.
She never forgot that terrible experience, the poor elephant. And so, as an adult, whenever she was chained by her handlers, she knew she would never get away. “If I pull it will hurt. Besides, it’s impossible to get away.” The large elephant had what we might call an “assumed restraint.”
Most of us don’t realize it, but we suffer in life with this same terrible condition. We live our lives and pursue our careers restrained by our imprisoning mental beliefs of life’s limitations. We think many things are impossible—things we once thought possible. And we laugh at how foolish and immature our beliefs once were.
There is a chain.Break it.
Ever see a circus elephant anchored to the ground? A small chain fastens to a metal collar tied around the elephant’s leg. And the chain is attached to a small wooden peg driven into the ground. 15,000 pound elephant could yank that wooden peg right out of the ground or break that little chain in two. But he won’t do that. As a baby elephant, trainer used same method and gave terrible scars to prevent him breaking away. As an adult, he is still living with that mental restraint.
Most of us don’t realize it, but we suffer in life with this same terrible condition. We live our lives and pursue our careers restrained by our imprisoning mental beliefs of life’s limitations. We think many things are impossible—things we once thought possible. And we laugh at how foolish and immature our beliefs once were.
There is a chain. Invisible. Created by one or another failure. Break it. Move on. Be free, be fearless.
Related post: http://lifemantras.com/2008/05/26/block-building/
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