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The Elephant Rope (Belief)


A gentleman was walking through an

elephant camp, and he spotted that the

elephants weren’t being kept in cages or

held by the use of chains.

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All that was holding them back from

escaping the camp, was a small piece of

rope tied to one of their legs.

As the man gazed upon the elephants, he

was completely confused as to why the

elephants didn’t just use their strength to

break the rope and escape the camp. They

could easily have done so, but instead,

they didn’t try to at all.

Curious and wanting to know the answer,

he asked a trainer nearby why the

elephants were just standing there and

never tried to escape.

The trainer replied;

“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 only reason that the elephants weren’t

breaking free and escaping from the camp

was that over time they adopted the

belief that it just wasn’t possible.

Moral of the story:

No matter how much the world tries to

hold you back, always continue with the

belief that what you want to achieve is

possible. Believing you can become

successful is the most important step in

actually achieving it.

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