I wanted to share a story that I came across recently that made a big connection with me. Perhaps because I get a huge satisfaction from helping other people break free from their restrictions or perhaps because I have many times felt restrained and know how frustrating that can be.

Read the story and let me know how it connects with you.

“As I was passing the elephants, I 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.

 I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well”, he 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.” I dug a bit deeper and the elephants, after many hours of struggle, give up trying to break free and then “they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free. I was amazed. These animals could at anytime break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck up where they were.” 

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life, conditioned to believe, that we cannot do something today because we couldn’t do it yesterday and now we don’t even give it a go?

Take five minutes on this extra day of the year to think about that one!