Break Your Ceilings
During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.*
As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.
The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.
Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the 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 in the second 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 got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.
The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.
Learning from the story
1. Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful.
2. We continue to see a barrier in our minds, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.
3. Sometimes we create imaginary glass ceilings without even experiencing it first hand, these barriers are created based on imaginary fears & conditioning. I have seen so many small business owners hitting the turnover barrier of Service Tax (earlier), Audit and not being able to cross that because they have created imaginary ceiling of fear of compliance and taxation. This keeps them small.
Questions to ask ourselves
1. What are the imaginary ceilings or barriers I have unconsciously created in my life and business which is stopping me?
2. How can I consciously break these ceilings or barriers?
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