Stake

I heard a really interesting metaphor in church today. The preacher said that when a captive elephant is a baby, people will tie it to a rope that's attached to a stake in the ground. The baby elephant isn't strong enough to pull the stake from its place, so it can't go anywhere.

But as the elephant grows bigger and stronger, a size where it would be perfectly capable of pulling out the stake, it no longer tries. The elephant remembers that it's incapable of pulling out the stake. Failure is inevitable, so why try?

That metaphor really struck me. I so often limit myself because of past failures. I failed at it before, why bother trying now? But perhaps, like the elephant, I've grown stronger (at least on the inside), and I could succeed now, if I'd give it a try.