As a guy was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures where being held by only a single rope tied to their leg. It was obvious the elephants could break the rope and walk away, but for some reason they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these magnificently strong animals just stood there and made no attempt to break way.

“Well”, the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use a similar size rope to tie them. At that age it is enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to think they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The guy was amazed. The elephants could break free at any time, but because they thought they could not, they did not try to break the rope. They were stuck right there! This powerful, gigantic creature has limited it’s present abilities by it’s limitations of the past.

Not having trained or owned elephants before, I can’t verify whether or not this story is true, but the truth of the metaphor remains.

We all have limits we have placed on ourselves.

Some were placed on us by those thinking they would protect us.

Some were placed on us by those who didn’t want us to grow beyond them.

Some were placed on us by well or ill intentioned strangers.

The real lesson of the story is not that limits were placed on us at some point, but that we have accepted them and chosen to live within.

We have not questioned things that just aren’t true.

My challenge to you today is this:

Where are you accepting limits that just aren’t there?

Is there an area of your life where you need to break free of assumed limits?

Take some kind of action today to prove to yourself that limit doesn’t exist.

Make it a great day.

Jake