Offering for your reading pleasure Day 1 of the 42 daily readings of UP and IN: Seven Keys to Unlocking Your Potential, excerpted from KEY 1: YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK / reprinted with permission. DAY 1 YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK “Strands of experience can bind us and blind us to the power we have to free ourselves.” Memories: Attending the circus was a pleasant childhood memory for me. As an impressionable child, I reveled in the anticipation of the big day, the excitement of the trip to the city, and the energy of the hurried crowd. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the circus wagons and the colorful vendors of cotton candy and popcorn. I recall the thunderous voice of the ringmaster as he enthusiastically introduced “The Greatest Show on Earth.” As if on cue, the dazzling parade began. Costumed performers and exotic animals streamed into the arena and advanced to the cadence of music. In they marched, one astonishing act after another taking its place around the circus rings. Clowns, acrobats, animal trainers, and performers of all types engaged the audience. Overhead, the high-wire trapeze wizards took their daring positions. But the highlight of the grand opening was the string of elephants that marched in as if tied together. The elephants stood in line according to their size. The first elephant, the largest one, followed a trainer, and the others grabbed the preceding elephant’s tail with their trunks. I distinctly remember the contrast of their huge bodies and their seemingly gentle spirit as the line of giants paraded into the arena voluntarily clinging to the friend in front. It was obvious to the audience that these gentle giants could easily plow through the arena without constraint. Even the smaller elephants demonstrated great power during their circus acts. Yet the elephants, regardless of size, obediently adhered to the wishes of their handlers, who used only simple measures of restraint. Why would elephants the size of Jumbo, reportedly standing 11.5 feet tall and weighing 6.5 tons, submit to a life of trudging along, following endlessly in circles without exploring new opportunities? Of course circus elephants are well trained. The lifelong lessons they learn, however, might surprise you. The essence of elephant school is deception, and the myth training begins when the animals are infants (and enrolled at MU—Myth University). A baby elephant weighing about 250 pounds can be restrained using a rope looped around its leg and tied to a strong tree. To teach the young elephant the myth that it does not have the strength to free itself, a trainer ties the animal up and leaves it to fight with the unyielding leg binding. The baby struggles for hours to set itself free to no avail and finally gives up. Through trial and error, it learns that it is no match for the rope binding and stops resisting (graduating from MU with honors). The elephant carries this lesson of limited potential around for the rest of its life. Even after the elephant grows mighty in stature and can easily break free from the leg binding, it remembers the deception that it is powerless. The lessons learned through life experience now serve to hold the elephant back. The huge animal has more potential than it can imagine. It is so much more than it thinks it is. We, too, behave like these powerful underperformers, unaware of our ultimate capability. We are similarly tied, not to a tree, but to past failures, dead-end jobs, unsupportive people, and regrets. We allow myths regarding our potential and the binding stakes (mistakes) of the past to hold us back. Strands of fear, doubt, and erroneous beliefs about ourselves twist into restraining ropes that bind us and blind us to the power we have to free ourselves. When we are in a down-and-out frame of mind, error and negative assumptions often attach to our thoughts. The wrong thinking and negativity lead us astray into the pits. The solution to freeing ourselves is as simple as detaching. We need to loosen our grip on improper thinking and grasp instead the right hand of truth. “Then you will know truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Feelings and emotions flow from our thoughts. These sensitivities remain dormant until we begin thinking a certain way. For example, we do not become frightened until we think fearful thoughts. We become stressed or depressed after we think a series of worrisome and negative thoughts. These thoughts can easily escalate out of proportion. For example: “I am never going to get this job done on time. My boss is going to be upset. He will likely give me a smaller annual bonus, if one at all. We will not be able to afford a vacation. My wife is going to be mad and the kids disappointed. How can I face them? I am a loser. My life is miserable. I will never amount to anything. I cannot go on.” The emotional pull that keeps us from feeling up and in arises from our belief in false assessments about ourselves, our situation in life, and our potential, thoughts we acquired through a lifetime of personal experience and associated error (myth training). Regardless of where you are and no matter the level of success you have already achieved, you are most likely allowing such negativity to restrain you unnecessarily, at least to some extent. I will let you consider to what degree, but like the elephant, you are not using all your resources or strengths. The reason for this omission is not chance but a failure to envision your real potential. You really are more than you think you are. You have greater potential than you have ever allowed yourself to imagine or conceive. Great potential, like an untapped well of possibility, is waiting for you to draw from it and claim it as your own. “We allow myths regarding our potential and the binding stakes (mistakes) of the past to hold us back.” DISCOVERING TREASURE PROSPECTING: Chances are you have graduated from Myth University, too. Are you going through life the elephant way, with your trunk attached to a limited future and your tail snared by your past? Are you clinging to habitual negative thinking that pulls you down and leads you where you do not want to go? You can take positive steps that will dramatically change the outcome of your own elephant parade. But first you must discard the errors you have assumed about yourself and ignore the myths about your capability you have accepted. If you really want to climb above your current situation, now is the time for you to modify your journey by stopping the elephant walk. You must turn loose of the tale you grasp—not the tail of an elephant but the misleading tale about you as a person, your potential, and the possibilities for your future. Now is the time to step free of the restraining ropes braided with fear, doubt, and erroneous beliefs. With faith in your true potential, pull away from the myths that have been holding you back. DIGGING DEEPER: Have you ever thought that your problems were elephant-sized obstacles which seemed to swell with each passing step? Perhaps you have felt jumbo troubles tracking recklessly about your life, leaving their lasting imprint. In a down-and-out stage of life, the days do seem to lumber along like the trudging of a big elephant. Life’s problems become too large to stop overnight, and they continue to trample us, one big elephant foot at a time, day after day. The circumstances seem so massive that we have no idea how to reverse the dreaded course. We spend most of our time either frozen in our tracks in fear or reacting negatively to issues, leaving little time for proper planning. Healthy actions that lead to positive progress rarely come to the forefront of our day. If you recognize this situation, isn’t it time to get out from underneath the weight of it all? Isn’t it time to stop the heavy elephant walk and lighten your load? The first step is to learn to free yourself from the myths that have been restraining you. Let loose the lasting negative images in your mind. Discard the thoughts that habitually weigh you down, tie you to the past, and keep you from obtaining your potential. There is hope. The future is full of opportunity. “Do not consent to the bindings of disappointments and despair. Turn loose of error, embrace truth, and soar.” —Steve Kubicek Excerpted from UP and IN: Seven Keys to Unlocking Your Potential, KEY 1: YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK / reprinted with permission. upandinbook
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 19:12:56 +0000
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