Let me tell you a story about the power of your beliefs. One of the most powerful creatures in the world is being hindered by a barrier that couldn’t control me. Elephants in captivity are restrained using a simple rope tied to a small stake in the ground. This belief happens because when they are young, the elephant is connected to the same rope around its leg, and no matter how hard it tries, it can’t escape.  Eventually, the elephant gives up and accepts the belief the cable can’t be broken.  This belief sticks with them as they grow, and they never try to escape as they could if they just tried.   It makes you wonder what types of ideas you might have accepted as accurate over the years. What is limiting you today, which you could break free from if you just tried today?  Have you received an elephant rope in your life? Let’s look at some of the elephant ropes out there.

Intelligence

All people can learn. Once you set your mind on becoming something or learning about a new idea, there is nothing that can stop us.  But, too often, people allow experiences from their youth to control their abilities as adults.  A bad elementary school math class experience leads to a lifelong idea that a person is “no good at math.” Or perhaps, you were laughed at for awkwardly drawing a picture.  This experience makes you adopt the idea that you are not artistic or, worse yet, not creative.  Whatever experience you had in your education, making you feel unintelligent or untalented, is time to reexamine it and find your fundamental truth.

Too often, we get painful scars as young people, which we carry through life. Like elephant ropes restraining us from being the best, we can be at something.  If you want to know what your beliefs are, think about doing what limits you. The answers your mind gives you are your beliefs, limiting, supportive, or otherwise.  You are smart enough to solve problems, learn new information, and become whatever you want to be. Just break your elephant rope and do it.

Age

If you think you are too young or too old to do something, then your elephant rope is age.  You get a lifetime to experience the world, learn, plan, try, experiment, grow, succeed, and sometimes fail.  The only person who can allow your age to limit you is you.  Age is just a number and will restrict you as much as you let it or believe it will.  Use all of your years to live, not to accept the limits of your mind.

There is a collective story about age the world seems to accept as gospel, that we should all aspire to get old and retire on our lives to recede into the waiting arms of death gently.  I am never retiring or losing my general purpose in life because through ambition, I am living and finding meaning in living.  The truth, as I see it is, you are never too young or too old to do anything. It is only the elephant rope of perception that limits you.  If you want to try something, give it a shot and see what happens.

Can’t Make Money Doing That

One of the elephant ropes holding us back is that we have found our passion, but people will quickly point out that you will never be able to make money at it.  The idea is putting a monetary value on something that determines how worthwhile it is. Look inside of yourself and see how you feel when you’re creating that.  Photography, drawing, painting, writing, running, gardening, playing corn hole, or whatever it is that makes you feel alive.

The wise person follows their intuition towards the activity that makes them feel alive and away from the thought of how much money you can make from doing this.  The money will take care of itself when things you are creating from authenticity.   You shouldn’t plan on making money and what intelligent financial decisions you should make. But instead, don’t let the fact that you lack the final vision of financial reward stop you. It will come to you as you follow the path.  How many people never start down the road? Leaving the wealth, joy, and success they dream of never materialized.  Doing what your heart guides you toward will never steer you wrong.

LET GO OF LIMITS

Whatever thoughts you have in your mind, which are holding you back.  Are they absolute limits, or are only your elephant ropes holding you back, keeping you from being great at what you want? Maybe the roadblock in front of you is something that limits you because of your beliefs about it. Change those beliefs and see what you can do.  Life has a way of conditioning you to accept limits, and the only way to change them is to decide to do things differently.

“You begin to fly when you let go of self-limiting beliefs and allow your mind and aspirations to rise to greater heights.” ―Brian Tracy.

“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” ―Mary Kay Ash.

“Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers.” —Mignon McLaughlin.

“Every person takes the limits of their field of vision for the limits of the world.” —Arthur Schopenhauer.