I recently read a book entitled The Ant and the Elephant by Vince Poscente. This book is written in parable form and tells the story of an ant named Adir and an elephant named Elgo. Basically Adir is riding on Elgo's back and is trying to reach a goal. Adir cannot reach the goal on his own. He needs the elephant to get him there. As the days and weeks go on, Adir learns how to best deal with his elephant and eventually reaches his desire.
As a parable this story is obviously a metaphor for what we do in our own lives. Adir the ant represents our conscious mind. Our thoughts and our desires are formed there. Elgo the elephant represents our sub-conscious mind. It is in this part of our brain where whether or not we can complete a task or reach a goal is determined.
Our sub-conscious mind is a powerful thing as illustrated by the images of the ant and the elephant. We all know that an ant is industrious and hardworking and strong. But when we compare the ant to the raw power of an elephant we see which is truly more powerful.
What does all this mean? Basically we have to be aware of what kind of diet we are providing for our elephant. A good diet which provides positive thoughts and clear indications of what we wish to accomplish will help to train our sub-conscious mind to move in positive directions. If we are providing our elephant with a negative diet it doesn't matter what our ant says -- we will never reach our goal. If we can get our ant and our elephant (our conscious and sub-conscious) working together and moving in the same direction at the same time, our potential for success increases dramatically.
It's not always an easy thing to think positively about reaching your goals. Life often throws up obstacles to bar the way. What we must learn to do is to see these obstacles as potential for growth and as steps towards something better.
What are you feeding your elephant?
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