As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages.
It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime can break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

“Well,” trainer 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.”

The man was amazed.
These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

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 once before?

Moral:
Failure is a part of learning.
We should never give up the struggle in life.
You Fail not because you are destined to fail, but because there are lessons which you need to learn as you move on with your life.

I had a Great Dane, and when he was small he was not able to jump over a small picket fence, and when he was much bigger he still wouldn’t jump over that picket fence because he believed that it was something that kept him fenced in. One day a stray dog appeared on the other side of the picket fence and my Great Dane “Duke” jumped the fence easily because he was taller than it.

Some years later the same Great Dane was on a chain.
He was sleeping happily in the Summer sun, and a stray dog wandered onto our back yard.
Great Danes dislike dog strays, and in a flash he was standing upright and staring at the stray dog.
To my amazement, Duke flexed his neck muscles, lurched forward a bit and snapped the steel clip that was on the end of the chain and was attached to his collar, pieces flew up in the air.
He could have snapped this at any time, but it took a stray dog to give him a reason to break free.

“Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you.” – Og Mandino.
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“The  only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”~ Arthur C. Clark
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How many times have you surprised yourself and done something you had once only hoped to do, or done something you thought was impossible?

Even though I’ve surprised myself many times, I can still get caught up in doubt.
Often we think that once we achieve success or fulfill our dreams, we then get the prize of staying “there” for the rest of our lives.
Actually, there is no “there,” we’re always a work in progress with new heights to reach for and new breakthroughs before us.
No matter how much we achieve, new obstacles will present themselves and to varying degrees our doubts, fears and hesitations will accompany them.

Whether or not you’ve ever gone beyond your limitations or only just hoped to, it’s something we can all do.
Sometimes we just need some extra help and a good boost.

– Aileen Mahone
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Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams. – Donovan Bailey.
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If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. – Bruce Lee.
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Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. – Rabindranath Tagore
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