Go Beyond your Boundaries

Let us start with some stories old and new!

The Elephant Rope
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, 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.

Here is another modern day story - Dog Collar Conditioning ~ By Lee Colan, Ph.D.

"I was taking a long walk with our small family dog, Sparky. Not sure who needed the exercise more. Although it was a well-worn path for both of us, this particular walk taught me a lesson about my dog and about me. Sparky is a great dog, but he is not a particularly well-trained dog. That’s a direct result of having a poorly trained owner. As a result, we have to be careful about leaving doors and gates open or Sparky will run like the wind.

This walk started off like business as usual. Then Sparky decided to continue his sniffing in one spot a little too long, so I gave the leash a gentle tug. As I learned later, Sparky’s dog collar had been loosened just one notch while he was at the vet’s office the day before. So this time when I tugged, his little head popped right out of the leash and he was free to roam, run or run like the wind!

But Sparky just sat there looking up at me, seemingly trapped. In reality he was as free as he had ever been. It was like a smorgasbord of all the smells and critters he could sniff and chase… a canine buffet! But Sparky stood still, paralyzed by the unknown of this freedom. He willingly let me reaffix his dog collar, allowing him to assume his normal comfort zone."

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? How many times have I stayed within my own self-imposed boundaries? Probably more often than I’d like to admit. How about you?

This “dog collar conditioning” frequently occurs in the workplace as well. Leaders’ boundaries are usually much wider than their team’s perception of those boundaries. In other words, we often condition ourselves to live and work in a smaller world because of our own limiting thoughts. We typically have more control and freedom than we think.

Our biggest barriers to greater success and freedom are not “out there.” They are “in here” (our head). To realize our potential, we must re-condition our thinking to stretch beyond the boundaries of our own comfort.

Remember, growth and learning occurs when we are uncomfortable.

So,
• Take off your “mental dog collar/Elephant rope” and explore new limits of success!
• Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.
• Choose not to accept false boundaries and limitations created by the past!