Do not let your past define your future.
During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tan. The shark quickly swam around and ate the smaller bait fish.
The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. He put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.
Again, the shark quickly went for the attack. Yet, this time, the shark slammed into the clear fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed on the other side of the 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 fish, until eventually the shark simply gave up and stopped attacking altogether.
The marine biologist eventually removed the fiberglass divider and watched. The shark did not attack. The shark began to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.
The moral: Oftentimes we become steadfast in certain behaviors that may have served us in the past; yet those patterns can cause us to feel stuck now. The reason we sometimes have difficulty moving forward is because we keep applying the old formula to the person we are today.
Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, give up and stop trying just as the shark did in the story. We establish beliefs that since we were unsuccessful in the past, we will be unsuccessful again, thereby creating an invisible barrier in our mind even though there are no ‘real’ barriers that exist between where we are and where we want to go.
The easiest way to achieve our goals is to break down those invisible barriers.
We live in the feeling of our thinking… not the feeling of our circumstances.
Make kindness a habit.
To Your Success,
Peak Performance Coach