The Chained Elephant Syndrome

One day a man was visiting the zoo , while he was walking between the different animals which were either caged or tied, it caught his attention that some huge elephants are only tied to a tree with a thin rope . In his mind he wondered : how can such huge creatures like those elephants which weigh hundreds of kilos be only kept in their places with such a thin piece of thread compared to their size , meanwhile all the other animals were either caged or had huge chains around their legs ?

As he was observing all this, one of the trainers in the zoo was near by so the man reached out to him and asked: How come those huge elephants are in their place while they are tied by a thin rope and they make no attempt to escape or run away or at least walk freely around?

The trainer replied back to the man smiling and said: Let me tell you a bit of history about this. When those elephants were just babies and smaller we used to tie them with this exact rope. At that time, this rope was more than enough to restrict them from running away and to keep them exactly where we wanted them to stay.

As they grew up and became older and stronger, we used the same rope, the rest was done by the elephants themselves as-in their mind they still believed that they will be not able to un-tie themselves and they never tried to set themselves free .

Then he added : Those elephants are capable of lifting enormous weights and with just one move they would have been able to walk away but it was all in their mind .They never actually tried, their past experience shaped their future one.

This inspirational wise story is EXACTLY like lots of people behaviors , their mind is simply chained .This is called the elephant and the rope mindset or mentality .

How many times did we believe we are stuck somewhere and there is just no way out of a certain situation or incident?

How often did we just decide not to give it another try or walk again the a road that had road blocks just because we failed once?

Some self help professionals, therapists and life coaches refer to this as the chained - elephant syndrome . They define it simply that we are often actually held-back with limitations that we unconsciously or consciously impose on our selves through our minds which were created in our past or from previous experience.

This story of invisible chains made by our own minds says it all, just like the elephants we just go nowhere.

Break the chains & free your mind , its the only way to move ahead.

#The_Chained_Elephant_Syndrome

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