A man was spending his holiday in Africa. One day, he watched the elephants passing by. To his great surprise, these giant, strong animals were being held only by 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.
The man was confused.
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 small rope to tie them. At that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away from the small rope. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”
The man was amazed by the reply.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? I think every one of us can relate ourselves to this story.
However, if we could look at all the so-called ‘failures’ in our lives as just stepping stones, we can progress steadily.
Treat Failure Like a Scientist
When a scientist runs an experiment, there are all sorts of results that could happen. Some results are positive and some are negative, but all of them are data points. Each result is a piece of data that can ultimately lead to an answer.
Treat your failures like a process of elimination. Your failures are not you. Your successes are not you. They are simply data points that help guide the next experiment.
Stay focused on what you would like to achieve. If you try again and again without losing your enthusiasm, you will succeed!
