What's Holding You Back?

The Story Of The Circus Elephant

When I was a young boy the Circus would come to town every year and set up their tents at the fairgrounds not far from where we lived. 

It was always a big deal for the local community. One year my father took our family which was a special treat for us. 

It was the first time I’d ever been to the circus. 

We were all super excited in anticipation to experience “The Greatest Show On Earth” with all its amazing acts and performances.  

Since my dad was a Navy veteran we always arrived early wherever we went. He called it being on “navy time”. 

Of course this day was no different and we arrived at the fairgrounds way before showtime.

We decided to wander around the grounds to check out what was going on behind the scenes. 

Just by chance we entered a huge tent where they kept all the circus animals.  

There were lions and tigers and bears. Oh my.

And Elephants.  Lots of them.

Most of the animals were in cages but not the elephants.

They were out in the open and shackled on one ankle that was chained to a stake in the ground.

I was awed by how big these magnificent creatures were. The elephants weren’t just big, they were enormous!

Their size scared the heck out of me. So I grabbed my father’s hand and squeezed it as hard as I could.

“What’s the matter Big Guy?”, my dad asked me. “They won’t hurt you. They’re all chained up. See?”

He pointed to the shackles attached to the stakes in the ground.  

I said, “But they’re so big they could rip that little stack out of the ground easily if they wanted to!”

Then my dad replied, “Yeah they could easily rip the stakes out of the ground. But they won’t.”

“Why not?, I asked.

“Because they don’t believe they can.” He said. 

“How come?”, I asked him.

My father told me, “When these big elephants are little babies the circus men put those shackles on their feet and chain them to a stake. 

The baby elephants aren’t big enough and strong enough to pull the stake out of the ground yet.  

They keep trying and trying to get away from the stake but they can’t.  

After awhile they just give up and quit trying because they don’t believe they can do it.”

“Even when they grow up to be so big?”, I asked.

“Yep.”, he said. 

I shook my head. “Wow. That’s crazy.”

“Crazy, but true.” he said as we walked away.  

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So What’s Holding You Back?

Do you think like a Circus Elephant?

When it comes to our behavioral conditioning we’re not that much different than those elephants. 

How many limiting beliefs do you have that are holding you back from success?

By the age of 7 most of our belief system is already imprinted in our minds,

We learn from our parents, family, friends and life experiences things along the way that may develop into negative beliefs about ourselves that block our success.  

Beliefs like, “you’re not smart enough’, “you’re not big enough”, “why can’t you be more like you’re sister”, “we don’t have enough money”, “money doesn’t grow on trees” and so on. 

I'm one of the Baby Boomer generation.

Our parents grew up during the Great Depression.

Consequently, most of them developed a "scarcity mentality" from their parents which they passed onto us.

As a result a lot of we Baby Boomers have serious limiting beliefs about money.

Fear is probably the biggest belief that holds you back.  

Everybody has some kind of deep seeded fear embedded way down in their subconscious mind.

What’s yours? Fear of rejection? I think everyone has that fear.  

You know what I mean. None of it’s true.  

Unless of course you believe it’s true.  

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before.

How many of us are being held back by old, outdated beliefs that no longer serve us? 

How many of us have avoided trying something new because of a limiting belief? 

Worse, how many of us are being held back by someone else’s limiting beliefs?

Our subconscious beliefs about money powerfully influence our relationship with money. 

People who have never had money or who fear losing money continue these patterns. 

We are all exposed to the financial examples and definitions that were shown or taught to us by our family, our community and the company we grew up with. 

Many studies have now shown that our beliefs about money are shaped in our childhood and influence us for the rest of our lives unless we consciously change them. 

Here’s an interesting article about 12 Things That Are Holding You Back From Success.

I think the above list is realistic however, I believe these 12 “things” are actually symptoms of some subconscious fear we programmed in our minds somewhere along the way. 

So How Do You Eliminate Your Limiting Beliefs?

The good news is that you can get rid of those beliefs that are holding you back.  

It takes some time and effort though. 

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional licensed therapist. I’m not even an amateur therapist!  

However, I do know that our minds are like a super powerful computer system.  

Our subconscious mind is like our Operating System.  

Just like a computer’s operating system our subconscious mind can get infected with virus’ and malware (aka our limited beliefs).

Like a computer’s operating system can be upgraded, so can our subconscious mind.  

I’ve tried many different techniques to "reprogram" my subconscious mind with varying results. 

Positive “self-talk” is important. I try to make it a habit.  

Affirmations can be useful but they don’t work for everybody.

There’s a lot of audio programs available online for free which have been helpful for me. 

Here’s a really interesting TedTalk video that offers some excellent advice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCv-ZBy6_yU

Here's another video classic called "The Strangest Secret".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UygnXqoKrC4

If you’re not achieving the success you dream about it may be because you have some limiting belief deep inside your subconscious mind that you’ve been carrying around all your life. 

Find out what it is, eliminate it from your subconscious mind, and install a new empowering belief!

“Once you replace your negative thoughts with positive you’ll start having positive results.” Willie Nelson

I hope you got some value out of this article.

Please like, comment and share this article if you did.

Thanks,

Tim Cronin, CEO, Apio Media

Reach out to me on LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/timothycronin1

My email: [email protected]

If you'd like to have a business discussion with me feel free to set up a call here: www.calendly.com/apiomedia