Bob Biehl, in his book
“Masterplanning,” tells about a conversation he had with a man who trains
animals for Hollywood movies. He asked him, “How is it that you can stake down
a ten-ton elephant with the same size stake that you use to restrain this baby
elephant?”
“It’s easy,” said the
trainer. “When they are babies, we stake them down. They try to tug away from
the stake countless times before they realize that they can’t get away. At that
point, the elephant memory takes over and for the remainder
of their lives they remain convinced that they can’t get away from the stake.”
Like elephants, humans have
long memories. Often when we are young, some unthinking, insensitive person
makes a negative statement about us or me, and we happen to hear it. Maybe they
say about us, “He is not as smart as the other children” “She always makes a
mess of things,” or “Her personality or disposition is terrible,” or “He has
very little leadership ability.” Often at those moments, a mental stake is
driven into our subconscious. Years later when we are adults, those stakes are
still holding us fast.
Most of our limitations are
self-imposed. Often during our childhood years, we pick up unrealistic fears and unreasonable
insecurities. By the time we reach adulthood, we may have little
self-confidence and lots of fears.
