How Sharks Are Tamed

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fishes into the tank.

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fishes.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. He then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fishes on the other.

Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fishes swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fishes, until eventually, the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fishes, so the bait fishes swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral: Many of us, after experiencing setbacks, give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.