Belief

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a not very thick rope tied to their leg.

No cages too. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

I saw a trainer near by and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

"Well," he 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."

These animals unknowingly believed they couldn't break free from their bonds simply because they failed at it once before.

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 before?