" Why don't we do things that we don't do ?? "

Somewhere in exotic Kerala....On observing an elephant tied to a tree with nothing more than a mere rope,a traveller asks the mahoot (care-taker of the elephant) with surprise :"How is it that an elephant weighing tons does'nt try to break free from its bondage,especially when its capable of doing so ..."

The mahoot replies "You see,when the elephants were in their infancy,we used to tie them to trees using the very same rope....As the years pass by she would try to break free,but there s a point of time when she realises that all her efforts are in vain,and would eventually give up...And from that moment on,whenever she 's shackled to a tree she would not make the slightest effort to free herself,unaware of her potential strength..."

I truly believe that jumbo here personifies explicitly- the lack of a certain human virtue,that being the ability to place confidence in oneself,or rather to believe in oneself...One cant say that jumbo didnt have perseverance,cos she tried really hard before giving up....But the fact that she believed that she can never do such a thing ever again in her life,well what can i say,thats so human....

It all starts out from our childhood, we start to chalk out in that little head of ours, things we can do,and more deeply etch things we suposedly "cant do"...As we go on, our 'can and cannot list' jus grows bigger...And everytime we stumble across a hurdle or inevitably face failure,we make a 'check' in our list of cannots,assuring ourlselves that it did not lie within "our capabilities " or that we know "our limitations" well....

We constantly curtail ourselves from doing things that we could, should ,or worse still, must have done...Its not the ether that surrounds us,not the people,not circumstances which undermine our capabilities,but that tiny crevice present in some dark corner of our head that behests us from doing things that we could,should, or worse still, must have done....

"To have pre conceived notions in life is bad,but to have pre conceived notions about ourselves,and more precisely about our capabilities is lethal.."

By pre concieved notions here, i mean beliefs that we have come to accept without actually pausing to substantiate them...In short,we deem that a certain thing cant be done,for no reason whatsoever...Now,try reading the elephant story once again,it made more sense to me....

These are purely my thoughts,true to my blog title,and i dont have a clue the way others see life...So,it would be nice if you could drop a comment and lemme know what u think...C ya...