Have you tied yourself with an Invisible Rope?

A bird can fly anywhere in the open sky but it confines itself to a particular location. Why? Probably because it believes that it’s world is only where it is right now and there is no other world outside the immediate sky.

When a wild infant elephant is to be domesticated it is tied to a rope proportionate to its size. The rope is strong enough to hold the small elephant. As time passes by the elephant grows and becomes stronger. However, it is tied up to the same rope it was tied when it was an infant elephant. The reason is after years of being domesticated it has developed a belief system that it can never break away the rope and run away back into the wild. So even though the small rope is of no match to the force of the elephant today, it is the belief system that won’t let the elephant break it and taste freedom once again.

In the movie, The Instinct; Dr. Ethan Powell (played by Anthony Hopkins) stands in front of the cage of an adult Gorilla and explains to Dr. Theo Caulder (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) that even if he opens the cage of this wild animal it won’t leave its cage and run away. Dr. Caulder doesn’t believe him and so Dr. Powell opens the cage wide open for the caged Gorilla to run away and be free once again. Dr. Caulder warns him not to do that but Dr. Powell doesn’t listen to him. But in the next few moments it is seen that the Gorilla doesn’t even move from where it was even after seeing the cage being wide open. The reason it doesn’t even move is because after being caged for so long it has now developed a belief system that it has to spend rest of its life in the cage and so even though an opportunity is presented to it to run away from the cage it’s believe system is holding it back.

Are we human’s any different from these birds and animals? Let us touch few scenarios:

• When we are in a Job we believe that “Job Security” is one of the important benefit of our Job. But ask a Freelancer and he/she will say, beyond job security is freedom and flexibility
• There are people who believe that they cannot change careers after middle age but Arnold Schwarzenegger switched careers from acting to politics at an age of 56 years
• Many people believe if someone is working for a multinational organization then their career is on a high. However, it is observed that the one who has worked in small or start-ups companies grow much faster and develops a higher spectrum of talent
• Many students believe that failing in an exam means an end of their career and life. In reality a person who has tested failure is more likely to be hungry for success
• Some believe they will live and die living within the means instead to migrating to a new place and trying their skills and luck on a new land
• There are people who believe living in a broken marriage is better than ending the painful relationship and giving life a second chance
• Many home-makers believe that their life is confined to four walls and that’s where it will end, though there are people like Mel Robbins, who broke her belief system and become one of the most influential speakers on the planet
• Till Roger Bannister achieved a milestone of one mile in four minutes in the year 1954, it was believed worldwide that its impossible to complete a mile in four minutes. After that several athletes have achieved this milestone
• It was believed man can never fly like birds. But two brothers who owned a bicycle shop achieved the impossible when the Wright Brothers took off on their maiden flight in 1903

The list is endless and still we let our belief system hold us back. So I urge to challenge it and reshape your life, like a kid re-models clay and not be tied up by the invisible rope of your Belief System.