The Elephant Rope

 As  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,” 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. 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? Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.