Sanjana Tarra

On the first day of the college, a psychologist entered a room with a glass of water to give a stress management presentation to an audience. He held up the glass as he gyrated the room and everyone watched with little interest as they all expected to be asked the classic "is the glass half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on his face, he inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"  The psychologist had captivated the interest of the audience immediately. Answers were called out throughout the room, “6 oz! 11 oz! 150 grams! 250 grams!” The psychologist replied, "Those are some great guesses, but I actually don’t know the weight of this at all.” The crowd laughed a bit and then the psychologist pressed on. “Although I do not know the absolute weight of this glass of water, let me ask you. What would happen if I held it up in the air like this for a few minutes?” “Nothing” the audience replied. “Ok. What about if I held it l...

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were. Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at...