Sep

Are You A Half-A-Tanker?

The following is a story taken from Denis Waitley’s “Platinum Collection: Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise.”

“There was a New England Pike. A big, ugly, hungry fish in a tank in a school classroom and it was mean and hungry. When we put minnows in the tank the Pike struck like lightning and literally inhaled the defenseless smaller fish. It didn’t seem fair, so we trained the Pike not to eat the minnows. We inserted a pane of clear window glass into the water in the center of the tank. We put the Minnows on one side of the glass and the Pike on the other and the Pike beat his head on the glass over and over again trying to eat those little fish, but all he did was scrape his teeth and get a headache. The barrier was real, solid, even though the fish couldn’t see it and didn’t comprehend what had happened. After a day of conditioning the Pike that he couldn’t go past the center of the tank because of the invisible glass barrier we carefully removed the glass.The minnows huddled together in one corner of the tank while the Pike swam in circles on the other side of the tank. He knew he couldn’t get to the other side, because of the invisible barrier and now he didn’t even try anymore. He had what is called learned helplessness, or conditioned response. The Pike is now a half a tanker.”

“Many people are imprisoned by invisible barriers which are only psychological limitations learned from bad experiences. You see you behave today in accordance with past experiences, real or imagined.”

The lesson here is that who you are today is a collection of yesterdays experiences. Many of the barriers we have come from our parents, spouses, teachers, friends, co-workers - even the media. Surprisingly, we usually don’t even know the barriers exist until someone points them out and, if the barriers help to maintain a feeling of security, we will defend them to the end.