Lifestyle | Self Improvement | Productivity

Fleas and Elephants: How Two Stories Could Change Your Life, Forever!

Sometimes, a little boost to your mindset is all it takes to change something. Maybe Fleas and Elephants can help with the boost!

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I really need something to change in my life. I feel I do the same thing every day and I’m getting nowhere.”

You feel like nothing is changing. Your life is the same thing, day in day out. You take the same route to work, you grab a coffee at the same place and do the same thing at work every day.

In the fitness world, it’s called hitting a plateau. I guess you can call it that in the non fitness world as well.

Oh, you may be thankful you have a good job, and nice family, and enough to get by, but you always wonder, “what else is there?”

You would like something to change, but you just don’t know what. You start to wonder and think maybe you’re just not working hard enough.

That’s all good to have that mindset, but is it the right mindset towards your work? Or your life? By now, we’ve all heard the old saying…

You can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results.

I’ve never been a genius, but the only activity I know of where you can assume (and expect) different results from doing the same thing is fishing.

Think about that for a bit and then read these two stories about Fleas and Elephants.

Story #1… Fleas in a jar.

I don’t know who was the first person to think of putting fleas in a jar, or why they did it, but they did. What they found out was that fleas can jump, and they can jump really, REALLY high! So high, that they would jump out of the jar.

So, to keep them in the jar (I guess to study them, but I still don’t know why someone would put fleas in a jar), they put a lid on the jar. After a while, the fleas started hitting their heads on the jar lid and it probably didn’t feel too good.

Since fleas like to jump (we know this because someone put them in a jar), but they don’t like to hit their heads, they would jump high enough to just miss hitting their heads on the top of the jar. After a while, that was their maximum height, just below the jar lid.

One day, the guy who put the fleas in the jar, decided to take the lid off. What happened? Nothing, the fleas were “self-trained” to only jump so high and no higher. They plateaued, so to speak. They didn’t know any better, their bodies didn’t know any better, they had trained themselves to stay in the jar. Get it?

Story #2 Circus elephants.

Elephants were trained too (I don’t think they were put in a jar, though). What the trainers do is when an elephant is just a baby, they tie a huge chain to its leg and the other end of the chain to a huge stake in the ground. Try as he might, the elephant just can’t move the stake.

After a while, he just gives up and realizes he’s stuck and has “self trained” himself to just accept this and not even attempt to pull that stake out.

Then, as the elephant gets bigger, the trainer starts switching out the big heavy chain for slight smaller ones. The chain becomes smaller and smaller and sometimes even turns to a small rope tied to a post in the ground.

Now, a full grown elephant can tip over a car, so a little post is no big deal, but since they’ve “self-trained” themselves into thinking they can’t move it, they never even try. They are stuck, they’ve plateaued, and that’s that.

I tell you those two stories because a lot of people “self train” themselves into a plateau. Whether at work, in a relationship, or with their workouts. In other words, they are used to doing certain things in certain orders, and that routine doesn’t change much.

Does this happen to everyone? I would assume no, but there are people out there who think they are stuck in a rut, so to speak. They have “self-trained” to do the same thing over and over and over. And some people just don’t like it and need a way to get away from it. Is that you?

If you feel like you’re not developing the way you should, there are two things you can do.

1) Keep doing what you’re doing (which you’ve already “self trained” yourself to do) and hope to be like a fisherman, expect different results from doing the same thing. You’ll be stuck like the fleas in the jar or the elephant tied to a post.

OR

2)you can change up your routine, do something different and see if the results start happening. In the fitness world, it’s called shocking the system.

You throw something new, maybe a different route to work, coffee at another place, eating lunch at a different time. Then, the part of your brain which controls your daily routine say “Hey, what just happened? Looks like I’ll need to start changing and adapting to this new stuff.” Get it? Does it make sense?

Dude, I encourage everyone to change up their routine every couple of months, just for the heck of it. You can always come back to what you did before, but always be looking for ways to change and improve and get out of that jar!

Will it work for you? Who knows. But if you’re stuck in a rut, and don’t like it for whatever reason, try something different. You’ll never know what you may discover!

Hey, if you want to read more from me, I’ve listed some links to articles below. I write mostly about lifestyle and fitness. Occasionally, I’ll throw in other stuff as well. But for now……