‘I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can”t accept not trying’ said Michael Jordan the famous Basket Ball player. Children, many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before. Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.
In this issue we are giving you a short story of elephants that were not moving only because they thought they could not.
Once a man was passing the elephants, he 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.
He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer 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. 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. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
As humans we have been extremely conditioned like the elephants, in our lives. The past with its experience and knowledge and memory informs us how to react to present situations. It is this conditioning which is responsible for much of our behaviour: to ourselves, to others and to every situation in life. It is this conditioning, for no fault of ours which dictates our perceptions of reality, of others and of ourselves. Makes one feel rather programmed does it not? If we could find a way to de-condition our minds, our behaviors, then maybe we could find peace and begin to live openly with a fresh mind and outlook. Instead of seeing reality as one big action and reaction, perhaps we can come to see reality as it is: ever present, ever changing, always new.
Children it”s never too late to do anything you want to do. You never know what you can accomplish until you try.
—Aniket Raja
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