A random quote sums up the word habit perfectly: “Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy
to get into, but hard to get out of.”
This article revolves around one central theme: how we
become the creatures of our habits. But before we delve into some pieces of
advice, let’s read a little tale of how habits are built and how they operate.
A little tale:
A man, accompanied by his family, went to watch the local circus. Upon reaching the circus grounds, the man’s son pointed out something perplexing to him. He noted how full-grown were tied with a single rope to a stump in the ground. The boy asked his father, ‘how come the elephants were tied to a single rope and were not help by chains or in cages?’
The father, in turn, asked the same question to the trainer of the elephants. “Well”, the trainer said, “these elephants were brought into the circus whey they were extremely young. At that time, the same rope and stump was strong enough to hold them back. They used to try to break away but never succeeded. As they grew up, they got used to the rope and never tried to break away. They were and have been conditioned to be this way. I now know they will not break away.”
The innocent creatures are destined to live lives where they are bound to a stump, just because they have gotten used to a way of life.
Are you conditioned? Are you bound by your habits?
How many of us are living lives where we are tied to some stump or the other (these stumps are our habits)? Can you see your stumps now? Are you struggling with change?
This small and effective tale of the tied elephants makes us realize how most of us have created a world where we struggle to change our habits and start to believe that they cannot be changed. All of us possess unlimited potential but most of us struggle to identify our stump, our blocks which prevent us from achieving our goals.
Your task is a simple one: identify the habits that have become your roadblocks and do away with them. It is time to discover your own potential. Simple changes go a long way in establishing a happier life. Hope after reading this, you can commit to your list of changes. Whenever you feel you are losing the energy to change, recall the story of the tied elephants and tell yourself that you do not wish the same for yourself.
