From my conversations with many of my friends, students, and even taxi drivers over the past couple of weeks, I realized that we -conciously or unconciously- are hooked to the past and what has been nailing us to certain perceptions that we mistakenly think about as facts..
Consider with me the following story about Elephants:
Elephants are massive creatures, they weigh at least couple of thousands of kilograms, and stand as high as three or four meters tall. Despite their enormous power, elephants can be chained! It doesn’t seem to make sense; does it? What chain is strong enough to hold an elephant who struggles to break it? The answer is a small one: a small chain fastened to a metal collar around the elephant’s foot is attached to a wooden peg nailed into the ground. This holds the elephant so strongly that it doesn’t ever struggle to break free.
The way to chain an elephant is to start when it’s a baby. You don’t even need a chain – a strong rope will do.
The baby elephant will struggle, but eventually it will realize that it can’t break the rope, and even worse, continuing to struggle creates a painful burn on its leg. The baby elephant learns not to struggle – it accepts that the limit imposed by the rope or chain is permanent, and there is no use struggling against it.
Sure, the elephant grows up, and becomes the most powerful land mammal on the face of the earth. But the chains in its mind remain, and so the chains on its leg are never broken
We may not be as massive as the elements but the power of our minds is; an inspired being of enormous power and capability. And just like the elephants that we might see tied up, our internal powers are also put in chains. May be because of wrong bring up, or stupid education and media, but we end up not believing in ourselves and the enormous capabilities are locked up within us.
How many of us want to change their jobs, get hooked or break up with someone, practice a hobby, ..etc?! and just keep telling him/herself that so and so are keeping him/her ... money, time, family, country, even Satan! and rarely admit that it is YOU. All these chains can be broken, sometimes easier that you can imagine if you have the strong will, vision, and persistence on the goal no matter what...
Break your chains, live wont stop at your lousy manager, stupid teacher, or crazy wife... If you want to do something and you feel good at it, do it .. If you believe in your ability to do something, don't think much, give it a try and evaluate yourself ... then see how can you take it further..
The "Egyptian Political System" that is not down yet, has embedded all the negative constrains in our minds, and they are now like land-mines that we need to carefully dig for and safely get rid of it..
Just go now and think about 1 single thing that you really want, and try to take practical steps to do it even if you see that there are millions of obstacles... just give it a try..
Mohaly