Once upon a time, a man went to a small town in Africa (for the first time) for sight seeing and recreation. He had on his list things to see, learn and do. One of the things on his list was to see and touch (if allowed) a life elephant.

In the morning (the next day), while strolling, he saw a handful of elephants and a trainer on a farmland, out of joy – he screamed and went closer – suddenly he became puzzled by the fact that these huge creatures were tied with ropes to stakes. No chains, not even cages. Obviously these elephants could uproot the stakes and break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

Read: https://sproutby.com/the-black-boy-and-balloon-story/

Out of curiosity, he asked the trainer – how is that ordinary ropes and stakes could hold these animals bond and they never made attempts to break free.

Then the trainer replied: “when they were very young and much smaller we used the same size rope to tie them – at that age, it was enough to hold them. And 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. He broke out into soliloquizing -“it is said that elephants are the largest terrestrial animals, and an average elephant in Africa weighs 4000-7000kg (8800-15400lb) yet couldn’t break free from their bonds because they’ve held on to a false belief.”

Like the elephants, so many people go through life hanging onto false beliefs and as a result they get stuck in life with unhappy circumstances.

Source: https://sproutby.com/short-inspirational-story-the-elephant-rope/

Adversities and setbacks can be likened to ropes and stakes, they are definitely not beyond what we can handle. Challenges are not big or strong enough to hold you bond -only self limiting beliefs can.

Snap out of your past failures, they are only temporary defeats –the best you can do with memories of past defeats is to learn from them.


Food for thought: most self limiting beliefs are not based on facts.