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, 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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