It could just have tugged the rope and broken itself free. But the big elephant won’t. Its large size is no match to the power of its own mental program that shouts, "F O R G E T I T !"
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| There's a lesson for us in the way circus organizers tame the elephants. Untitled photo by Dave Malkoff |
This is what happens when we live life and encounter obstacles most of the time. This feeling manifests when you see something that really catches you --- a health regimen, or a potential partner, or a mansion, or a car, or a cruise ... you name it. You feel like you want it so badly, but then you feel cold water all over you as you feel the "rope." You say, "Forget it!"
Most of the time, we don't know that's what's happening. We discover the picture only after someone tells us so, or when we look back at life at old age. We say, "What if?"
(This is not to say there's no hope at old age. Look at Colonel Sanders who successfully sold his recipe to KFC and became its mascot, all at the age of 75. But why wait til you're 75?)
Someone I know told me, "I would rather suffer the consequence of a mistake, rather than spend my old age wondering, 'What if I did that? What if I took the chance?' The burden of not knowing is more unbearable."
What do you think?
Having a Life Coach would help. The Life Coach can be your parent, brother, best friend or a professional one. He knows you can do it and helps you process in your mind the truth that you can do it.
Breaking free starts with setting goals. The keyword at this time is the word “setting.” Setting goals is a belief system and a discipline -- a belief that the rope can be broken, and the discipline to tug it until it breaks.
Setting goals require "belief" because passion flows from it. When you do not believe you can break that rope, you would go through the motion of tugging it, but there is no "force" that flows into it. The thing is, when you just go through the motions of things, what you reinforce instead is a "belief" that the rope cannot be broken.
Either way, you believe in something. Which way would you want your belief to be directed?
Setting goals require a discipline because results take time to incubate and show itself. The rope may not break in one tug, nor in two, nor in three. In fact, nobody knows!
But discipline, hand in hand with belief, will break that rope.
There's this story about a stone mason that I got in one of my readings. He hit the stone 99 times and nothing happened. Then he hit it one more time and it broke neatly in two.
A boy who watched him exclaimed, "Wow, that must have been a great blow, it broke it!" The mason replied, "It broke it? Boy, it broke because of the 99 times I hit it. The 100th simply confirmed it."
Does the mason make any sense to you?
Have a great and prosperous life!
See also: The Secret (and Cool) Art of Losing Steam
CoachMarvin.com
FANNING THE FLAMES OF EXCELLENCE IN PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS
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