Just by reading the title, you would have got a buried feeling and a voice from inside would have told you "Yeah, I also have it within me". But I will portray it with one of my own experiences to show how it becomes so deep-rooted in us that we even don't recognize what's going on.
So, once I got a chance to visit a show of wild animals in my village area in my childhood days. There were many wild animals for the show but at the shed, my eyes automatically went to the Elephants, awed at their size and strength.
But I was perplexed to see that they were being held by only a small rope tied at their front leg. Looking at the rope, it was obvious that, if the Elephants wanted, they could break the rope easily and free themselves, but for some reasons they did not; why is it so?
Just to find out more about this, I asked the man who was looking after the Elephants as to why they used such a skinny rope to tie a giant like an elephant.
I can still remember the reply of the man, as he said that when the Elephant was a child, the rope was enough to hold them as they were unable to break it. But as they grew up, they tended to believe that the rope is enough to hold them and they never tried to break free.
When I came across this incident, I was a child and didn't realize at that point of time how these things matter the most in our lives.
So how can we learn from the Elephant story? Well, all of us have fear of failure within ourselves which pulls us back putting a condition that what happens if one got failed? What will others say? These thoughts pull us back and we even give up the work without giving a try.
Also, sometimes the fear of failure gets so rooted in us that we cannot even figure it out, as it happened in the case of Elephants. They didn’t even try to set them free. But many among us will have an excuse that we are not idiotic like the Elephants, right? Trust me, the fear of failure is there inside of us and we are afraid to accept it. But to become successful in life we have to overcome this fear. We have to uproot the tree which is a barrier to our success and we can do that because we have the ability to think and that’s what an elephant can’t do.
Failure is not the end of the world; instead, failure teaches us what things needed to be done in order to achieve success. It also teaches us things about ourselves that we would never have learned otherwise. For instance, failure can help you discover how strong as a person you are.
Take small steps towards your goal. Even if you fail several times, it doesn’t matter. Always remember that each time you fail, it will help you learn the ways to achieve success. Avoid the negative thinking in your mind and keep yourself pushing forward and do keep your goals high, as, in order to hit the target, we need to visualize beyond the target.
There is a famous quote from the legendary businessman, Ratan Tata, who said “
None can destroy iron, but its rust can! Likewise, none can destroy a person, but his own mindset can”. So never let fear overpower your mind and without thinking about failure, start preparing and hit the bullseye on D-DAY.