Are You As Dumb As An Elephant?

Are You As Dumb As An Elephant?
Over the last 4 years my family and I have travelled
extensively and regularly to Southeast Asia, and Thailand
in particular, to broaden our horizons whilst at the same
time deepen our family bond in beautiful and inspiring
surroundings.

These times are always amongst my favourite times of the
year, reminding me of what I work so hard for the rest of
the time... to learn, explore and discover with my family.

On a recent trip, I took my family to the Chiang Mai region
in Northern Thailand, where mountains, jungle and amazing
rivers combine to create a fantastic backdrop of colours,
sights and sounds.

A true feast for the senses!

While we were there, we took an elephant jungle trek tour
that allowed us an 'elephants' eye view of the jungle as we
waded rivers, climbed hills and descended into deep valleys
and gullies.

It was an amazing experience to see my children first
fearful, then a little more relaxed and then outright
excited and thrilled to be privileged enough to share this
experience with the largest land mammal on the planet.

During one of our short stops to feed and reward the
elephants with a handful of bananas and sugar cane, I
noticed that the Mahout(elephant handler) simply popped a
small rope on a stick into the ground and tied the elephant
to it and walked off, leaving us on the elephant alone.

As I looked at the stick I wondered what foolishness must
be going through this little man's mind.

I mean, here we were, sitting on a 5 ton hunk of muscle and
pure power and the guy had hitched it to a thin rope and a
stick no thicker than my thumb!

I fully expected the elephant to (in elephant-speak) laugh
at this puny little thing, pull it out of the ground and
walk off with my son Connor and I into the jungle never to
be seen again.

But that didn't happen.

The elephant didn't walk off.

It didn't even TRY to pull the stick from the ground.

It stayed exactly where it was waiting to be 'released'
from its bondage.

When I got back to the camp, I asked the mahout about this
and he explained a concept that had totally blown me away
at the time, and still does to this day.

He told me "We train the elephants when they are very young
by using thicker ropes and heavy beams or tree trunks. When
the young elephant pulls, it is pulling against an
immovable object and so soon tires and gives up.

Eventually, over a short time (and several smaller trees
and sticks), the elephant stops pulling altogether,
believing that the attempt is futile and will always end in
failure.

It merely gives up."

As a performance coach I couldn't help thinking of many
clients I'd worked with who were doing exactly the same
thing in their lives.

People who were trained when young about what was possible
and what was not when they were too weak to pull against
these ideas and release themselves to being successful.

Now they're all grown up, they're like the elephant,
unwilling to try because they're so sure it'll end in
failure that they don't even bother.

It made me think about about all the times I'd quit in the
past and all of the people who write in to tell me of their
own decision to do the same.

Everyone's got goals, dreams and aspirations that they've
have left by the wayside because some well-meaning friend
or loved one told them 'would only end in heartache and
failure, so why bother?' right?

Dreams that someone said were 'silly' or 'childish' or
'unrealistic'.

But what if they're not any of these things?

What if, just like this big, beautiful yet dumb creature
we've have been conditioned to believe something that is
totally and utterly untrue?

What if, just like the elephant, we could literally rip up
the chains that are holding us down and walk off into our
own jungle of success and happiness...if only we had the
courage to pull, and keep on pulling in order to bring
about the things we want?

We can you know!

Many, many people who once led lives of total and utter
desperation now live lives that most of us would consider
pure fantasy with houses, planes, boats, cars, money and
above all, happiness that would never have been theirs if
they hadn't 'pulled against the rope' that was telling them
they couldn't possibly win.

You CAN, but will you?

Will you write that book that the small voice inside of you
tells you that no-one will ever read?

Will you take that trip to those places you always dreamed
of but that your wallet tells you that you can't afford?

Will you lose that weight that your 'slow metabolism'
insists won't go?

Will you buy that house, start that business, learn that
language.....?

I could go on all day, but in the end, when all's said and
done, it's you and ONLY you who can pull the stick from the
ground and break free.

No-one is going to do it for you.

No-one CAN do it for you.

You, and only you have the power to do this.

Start TODAY!

(Please don't send me any hate mail. I am not elephantist,
I love 'em. 'Dumb' only refers to their inability to
recognise the power they have but aren't using. : )

----------------------------------------------------
Dax Moy is a performace lifestyle coach and master personal
trainer with studios in and around London.
Voted one of the UK's leading health and fitness experts,
Dax is a regular guest expert on television, radio and in
print media where he advises on all manner of performance
related issues.
You can read more of Dax's unique perspective on goal
achievement and personal success by visiting
http://www.themagichundred.com