The Elephant Rope

A man was in Thailand at the Elephant Attraction. As he was walking around the attraction, he stopped his pace to ponder why the elephants were able to be held captive by only a small rope tied to their leg. Neither chains, nor cages were needed. It dawned on him that the elephants could break the ropes easily and escape. For some strange reason, they did not.

He went to an elephant mahout nearby and asked why the elephants could be secured using only a rope, and wouldn't make any attempt to escape. The maout replied, “when the elephants were much younger, the same rope size was used to tie them. At a young age, the smaller rope was strong enough to restrain the elephants. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe that they do not have the ability to break the rope to escape. They believe the rope can still hold them, that is why they never try to escape.”

The man was astounded. The elephants could break free anytime but because they believed they couldn't, they were help captive right where they were.

Similar to the elephants, how many of us go through life, placing a limited belief on ourselves that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

We should see failure at part of a learning process- Never give up in life.

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