A motivational email from today

This was a "motivational" email I got today; I wanted to share this, but didn't know the appropriate place where it would be best seen and used, so I'm sticking it here.

As many of my readers know, my family and I have travelled
extensively and regularly to Southeast Asia, and Thailand in
particular, to broaden our horizons whilst at the same time deepen
our family bond in beautiful and inspiring surroundings.

These times are always amongst my favourite times of the year, reminding me of what I work so hard for the rest of the time.

On one of my most recent trips, I took my family to the Chiang Mai
region in Northern Thailand, where mountains, jungle and amazing
rivers combine to create a fantastic backdrop of colours, sights and sounds.

A true feast for the senses!
While we were there, we took an elephant jungle trek tour that
allowed us an 'elephants' eye view of the jungle as we waded rivers, climbed hills and descended into deep valleys and gullies.

It was an amazing experience to see my children first fearful, then a little more relaxed and then outright excited and thrilled to be
privileged enough to share this experience with the largest land
mammal on the planet.
During one of our short stops to feed and reward the elephants with a handful of bananas and sugar cane, I noticed that the Mahout
(elephant handler) simply popped a small rope on a stick into the
ground and tied the elephant to it and walked off, leaving us on
the elephant alone.

As I looked at the stick I wondered what foolishness must be going
through this little man's mind.

I mean, here we were, sitting on a 5 ton hunk of muscle and pure power and the guy had hitched it to a thin rope and a stick no thicker than my thumb!

I fully expected the elephant to (in elephant-speak) laugh at this puny little thing, pull it out of the ground and walk off with my son Connor and I into the jungle never to be seen again.

But that didn't happen.

The elephant didn't walk off.

It didn't even TRY to pull the stick from the ground.

It stayed exactly where it was waiting to be 'released' from its bondage.

When I got back to the camp, I asked the mahout about this and he
explained a concept that had totally blown me away at the time, and
still does to this day.

He told me "We train the elephants when they are very young by using thicker ropes and heavy beams or tree trunks. When the young elephant pulls, it is pulling against an immovable object and so
soon tires and gives up.

Eventually, over a short time (and several smaller trees and sticks), the elephant stops pulling altogether, believing that the attempt is futile and will always end in failure.

It merely gives up."

As a performance coach I couldn't help thinking of many clients I'd
worked with who were doing exactly the same thing in their lives.

People who were trained when young about what was possible and what was not when they were too weak to pull against these ideas and
release themselves to being successful.

Now they're all grown up, they're like the elephant, unwilling to try because they're so sure it'll end in failure that they don't even bother.

Maybe you're even one of those people amanda?

I bet you've got many goals, dreams and aspirations that you have left by the wayside because some well-meaning friend or loved one told you 'would only end in heartache and failure, so why bother?'

Dreams that you thought were 'silly' or 'childish' or 'unrealistic'.

But what if they're not any of these things?

What if, just like this big, beautiful yet dumb creature you have been conditioned to believe something that is totally and utterly untrue?

What if, just like the elephant, you could literally rip up the chains that are holding you down and walk off into your own jungle of success and happiness...if only you had the courage to pull, and keep on pulling in order to bring about the things you want?

You can you know!

Many, many people who once led lives of total and utter desperation
now live lives that most of us would consider pure fantasy with houses, planes, boats, cars, money and above all, happiness that would never have been theirs if they hadn't 'pulled against the rope' that was telling them they couldn't possibly win.

You CAN, but will you?

Will you write that book that the small voice inside of you tells
you that no-one will ever read?

Will you take that trip to those places you always dreamed of but that your wallet tells you that you can't afford?

Will you lose that weight that your 'slow metabolism' insists won't
go?

Will you buy that house, start that business, learn that language.....?

Look amanda, I could go on all day, but in the end, when all's said
and done, it's you and ONLY you who can pull the stick from the
ground and break free.

No-one is going to do it for you.

No-one CAN do it for you.

You, and only you have the power to do this.

Start TODAY!


ACTION EXERCISE

Remember all those things you once put aside as silly and unrealistic?

I want you to access your memory banks, think hard and long and
compile a list of all the things you once wanted to do, or still want to do but gave up on because life got in the way.

Write down EVERYTHING!

Once you've done this, go back over your list.

Let your eyes stop on each thing for a few seconds and try to get a
feeling for which ones are 'calling you' the most. Which things
stir up the most desire? The most emotion? The most excitement?

Now comes the easy bit.

TAKE ONE STEP...

Take one single step toward achieving one of these goals.

If it's to take a luxury vacation, send off for the brochure.

If it's to buy a car, do the same or arrange for a test drive.

If it's to write a book, write a page.

It doesn't matter what it is, just take a step.

That step then becomes the first tug on the stick holding you in
position.

So what if the stick doesn't pull free yet? You tugged!

You started to take action. You believed (even if it was just a little bit) that you could, maybe, move on from your current circumstances.
Once you've done that...wow!

Once you've done that, all you need is another tiny step, then another, then another and before you know it, the stick is out of the ground and you're running free!

Go on, do it amanda!

Take a step, don't be a dumb elephant for a minute more.

To your success and happiness

Dax