Principal Report

THE ELEPHANT ROPE

A tourist was amazed to see in Thailand that a group of beautiful elephants was being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. There were no chains, no cages, just a short rope tethering each huge creature to a small stick in the ground.

It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the rope but for some reason, they did not.

The tourist asked the trainer why the elephants just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"It's simple," 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. They try and try to get free but cannot. 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 escape."

The tourist was astonished. These enormous animals could at any time break free but because they believed they couldn't, they were stuck right where they were.

How many of us, like the elephants, go through life believing that we cannot do something, simply because of something that we thought we learned when we were young?

How many of us have in our minds a short rope we could easily shake off?

How many of us are capable of far more than we ever dream of?

Don't be held back. Don't be tethered in one place.

Believe in yourself. You may be surprised by how far you can go

Acknowledgement: Original author unknown

With warm regards,