Fresh Start Monday #040: Do you have a chained mindset?
All limitations are self imposed - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. They can grow to 13 feet tall and weigh up to 14,000 lbs. A determined elephant will trample through anything, and they roam freely in the wild. Why do we see passive elephants in zoos?
Elephant trainers use a technique called elephant chaining. When an elephant is a baby, they tie their leg to chains that are too strong for a baby to break through. The chain burns into their skin and causes pain when they struggle to free themselves.
To avoid that pain, they eventually stop trying to escape. When the elephants grow to full-size adults, trainers still use the same chains they could now easily break through. However, the elephants remember the pain from the chains and will never struggle against the rope again.
Throughout our first couple of decades in life, we're trained to live in a certain way. Most of our training comes from our parents, peers, school, geographical location, and culture. This training is good! It's necessary for our survival as we're dependent on others. This training protects us.
However, chains from our past hold us in place. The burns seared into memory.
Ironically, just like an adult elephant that decides to break through a flimsy chain, we learn our limitations are not rooted in reality when we choose to push through.
They're imposed by circumstances in our past that we have clung to.
They're self-imposed limitations driven by pain from past experiences.
Journal prompts to reflect on:
What is one limitation you've bought into about yourself?
What limitations do you feel the people in your life have put on you and your potential?
Pick one limitation. What if it's incorrect? What can you do this week to test the chain around your leg?
Local to Boulder, Colorado?
Join me this Wednesday (6/7) on Meetup to explore our self-imposed limitations through a series of journal prompts with other like minded people in their 20s and 30s.
Wine & Words on Wednesdays
Wednesday, June 7th at 6pm MT at Silver Vines Winery