Mindset

I watched my nephew struggle to climb over the sofa. It was too difficult for his age to get the technique right. He failed several times; but his young brain didn’t give up trying. And to nobody’s surprise, he finally managed to climb the sofa after multiple failed attempts. The 2 year old showed the determination that we grown ups have forgotten.
We all boast about the experience and knowledge we gain from years of learning. However, the same learning/ experiences hold us back from trying again. We use the experiences to condition and hard wire our brain to believe that something cannot be done. We get stuck with our mindset.
A story of a chained elephant provides a great example of how the psychological behavior (mindset) can influence our life. The story goes like this.

“A baby elephant born in a circus is trained from an early age to perform in the acts. After each performance, the elephant master takes the elephant outside and ties a chain around its ankle. Using a mallet, he hammers the chain into the ground to stop the elephant from escaping. The baby elephant pulls and pulls, but cannot break free. This happens after every performance.
The elephant grows, but the master continues to use the same chain. Eventually the elephant reaches its full size and still the master uses the same chain. However, over the years the elephant has stopped trying to break free from the chain, no longer even bothering to try”

The adult elephant in the story has the strength to easily break free. However, it is conditioned to believe that it cannot break the chain. Similarly, we too set constraints and boundaries around us and live with those beliefs all our life. We hang on to the beliefs that we develop over period or beliefs that are influenced by others on us.
All we need is to believe that we can break those shackles and change the outcome for better tomorrow. All we need to do is to not get bound by our limitations. Rather use those limitations to our benefit. With correct attitude, an open mind, desire and correct application, we can get closer to the goal. I agree that this goal will by no means be an easy target. However, persistence, endurance and willingness to rise from the failures will make us tough and more determined to achieve anything and everything.
We need to get over the mindset and keep trying. I will leave my thoughts with a beautiful poetry written by a hindi poet SuryaKant Tripati Nirala.

लहरों से डरकर नौका पार नहीं होती
हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

नन्ही चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर सौ बार फिसलती है,
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना,गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है,
आखिर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती ,
कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा-जाकर खाली हाथ लौट आता है,
मिलते न सहेज के मोती पानी में,
बहता दूना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में,
मुठ्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।

असफलता एक चुनौती है स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गयी,देखो और सुधार करो,
जब तक न सफल हो नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्षों का मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम,
कुछ किये बिना ही जय-जयकार नहीं होती,
हिम्मत करने वालों की हार नहीं होती।