THE CHAINED ELEPHANT AND YOU!

I once sat at the feet of an elder, a sage and great orator to drink from his well of wisdom. I drank and drank till I was full to the brim.

 Oh! How I love dinning with the sage. From his lips are not cunning devised fables, but instructions of wisdom that will command excellence and honor when heeded to.

Of the many stories the sage shared with me, let me share one with you today.

In a village called Lalupon in the ancient city of Ibadan, there was a hunter who specializes in killing elephant. One day, he caught three calves (young elephants) and he took them home. The hunter attached a shackle on one of the legs of the calves to restrain them. 

These calves weigh between three to four hundred pounds at best. They tirelessly tried a great deal to get away from the chain, but no matter how hard they try, they can’t break loose from the shackles.

The sage then said, “My child do you know that using the same stake and chain, an adult female elephant that may weigh a couple tons can be held by the very same shackle as the one used on the calves”.

 I was amazed and gazed at the sage in a subtle manner. 

"How is this possible?", I asked the sage, temporarily interrupting the flow of his narration.

The sage replied there are two things about an elephant, the first one is that Elephants really do have great memories. And the second is that they aren’t all that bright. 

The adult elephant remembers how it was stalked up as a calf and couldn’t get away from the stake. Thus at a certain point, as a calf, the elephant became convinced that it could never get away.

Now as an adult, the elephant doesn’t even try. 

The sage concluded in the end by saying ‘my child what happened is that the elephant was not chained to the stake but rather it was chained to the idea that it can never get away from the stake’. 

And that’s how a ten-pound stake can hold down a two-ton elephant that could use its trumpet to remove a big tree.

In relation to the scenario played out in the case of the elephants, some of us have found ourselves tied to our past just like the elephant chained to the stake. And as such, we lay an embargo on our innate ability to advance in life. 

The morale of this story is that, you should not be hooked up by the idea that you once failed and hence conclude you are a failure forever. 

It is not true until you affirm it to be true.

We must therefore take conscious cum deliberate effort to break loose from all forms of chains fixed in our imaginations, be free, explore and be all we are designed to be.

I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION, and an ASSET to NATIONS.