Stories continued...

Janet I liked the starfish story... here is one I always liked that i told the girls 4 by100 this year.

The elephant story

IF you have ever been to the circus or zoo you may wonder, when you see the elephant enclosure, why is it that the huge, old elephants that stand some 20 feet high and the tiny baby elephants, that only come up to your knees, are tethered with exactly the same size chain attatched to a small stake in the ground.

You may think it completely illogical to treat these animals in the same way. Surely, you may argue, the older, larger elephant should have a much bigger chain than a baby one. A fully-grown elephant could, if it wanted to , simply walk away and, without even breaking a sweat, pull the stake out of the ground, like you or I might pull up a daisy, or snap the chain like a twig.

But that's just the point. The old elephant has forgotton what it's like to struggle to be free. It learnt the lesson a long time ago, when it was a baby, that despite its efforts it remained imprisoned, and so, even though now as a fully-grown adult, it might bave the strength of 10 men, it believes itself to be just as much a prisoner - and has given up the struggle.

The baby elephant, who constantly pulls and tugs at its chain, still has the motivation to succeed - and the belief that it can.

Moral: If you want to change your behavior, first change your beliefs.