The Elephant Rope Motivational Story
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha
The essence of this simple yet powerful quote can be well understood with the Elephant Rope Story.
Once passing by an elephant camp, a man came across adult matured elephants tied to small trees by thin ropes. Wondering why the gigantic animal just stands by silently and does not revolt, he walked up to the elephant trainer. He could not control his amazement and voiced his question, “Why do these huge animals not try to uproot that small tree or break free from that flimsy rope?” Before letting the trainer answer, he put in, “Don’t tell me that they do not have the power to do so. We all know that a grown-up animal can fight a lion and win the battle.”
The trainer smiled and said, “When a baby elephant needs to be tamed, it is tied with these slender ropes, similar to what you see.” “As a young one, it tries its best to break free but cannot because it lacks the strength to do so. However, as the elephant grows up, the urge to break free slowly diminishes. It is because its mind is conditioned to believe that it cannot break the rope even though it is the same. As a result, you see this huge mighty animal bound by a simple rope, and there is no chaos at all.”
Learnings from this story:
The mind is the master, and we need to master it. Whatever your mind believes, you will end up being that. In this case, the elephants – one of the world’s most powerful animals, believed to be the smartest with amazing mental capabilities – are made to understand that they cannot break the rope. A thought sowed in their brain in their childhood lasts a lifetime, never giving enough courage to the animal to break the rope. And, this thought prevails till the end. Sad, but that’s the truth.
This story is not just about elephants, though. It applies to us human beings too. Our thoughts manifest into realities. What we think, we tend to move along on the same lines. Very few of us venture to break free from the symbolic ropes that limit our thoughts, beliefs and stop us from achieving our dreams. Like the elephant, we are scared to escape from our fears, prejudices, set rules, and laid down norms. Don’t limit your mind – it is the most powerful asset – program it with progressive and positive thoughts.
