There is a story told about elephants and their handlers in Africa.
An adult elephant can uproot large trees with its trunk and knock down a house with little difficulty. Yet when an elephant is young and living in captivity, it is tied each night to a tree with a heavy rope or chain.
Because elephants naturally roam freely, the young elephant instinctively struggles with all its strength to break loose. But it is not yet strong enough. After trying and failing repeatedly, it eventually stops struggling. It learns to believe that escape is impossible.
Years later, when the elephant is fully grown, it may be tied to a small tree with a thin rope. By then, it could easily break the rope or uproot the tree. Yet it makes no attempt to free itself, because its earlier experiences have conditioned it to accept a limitation that no longer exists.
The elephant’s present power has been restricted by the memory of its past weakness. This is sometimes called Baby Elephant Syndrome.
Human beings can fall into the same pattern. We may carry forward conclusions formed during earlier failures, difficult experiences, or periods when we had fewer resources, less knowledge, or less strength. The difference is that we can examine those old conclusions and choose not to let them define us today.
Do not let your past dictate who you are. Let it be part of who you become.
—Anonymous
“I’m not as good as I ought to be. I’m not as good as I’m going to be. But I am thankful that I am better than I used to be.”
—John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach
“The mind’s possibilities are limited by its concept of its potential.”
—Na’im Akbar, Ph.D.
One very important tool that I’ve been using happily for a while already is the application of the Four Toltec Agreements which you can find here in French http://marioquesada.com/?attachment_id=18
Have fun with it.
