Happy Tuesday

There is a story that a teacher of mine used to
tell, it goes like this -

There was a little Creature Village with all of
these little Creatures in it, and it was a very
WINDY town.

Since the Creatures were so small, they would
surely fly away if they didn't hold on and GRASP
whatever they could, so they held on to poles and
fences, and they even tied little ropes on to each
other and all of their children so they wouldn't
fly away.

Then one day, a Rebellious Teenage Creature
started to Question Authority.

He asked, "WHY do we have to GRASP and hold on to
each other like this? It's no way to live! I'm
tired of being a control-freak and living in FEAR!
Why can't you just cut my ropes loose and let me
be?"

And the Creature Parents said, "If you don't
hold on tight, if we cut your rope loose, you
would just fly away! There is no way we could do
that - we love you too much."

Whatever.

The Rebellious Teenage Creature had enough of
holding on to everything in sight, and one day, he
cut the ropes and just LET GO.

At first, he flew up into the air and rolled
around all over the place... bumping into
everything... and finally he learned to swivel
upright and managed to learn how to control his
weight and glide gracefully in the air...

And he flew around for a while, and eventually he
saw what looked like ANOTHER Creature Village! So
he swooped down and grabbed onto a tree and pulled
himself down to meet its people.

By the time he reached the ground, most of the new
Creature Village People had gathered around him,
and started to worship him, kissing his feet and
offering up their possessions and their
daughters...

He said, "Why are you all worshiping me?!"

The Creature Mayor came forth and said, "But you
are The One, the Messiah, you have flown in from
the Heavens to Rescue us!"

He rolled his eyes and said, "I'm no Messiah! I
am just like all of you... the only difference is
I LET GO."


Addendum: I have found that we hold on to popular beliefs due to fear (Duh!). BUt perhaps - I think only Nigerians mix words this way - there is more to it. I think we are too familiar with the old that seeing sense in the new challenges our understanding, and reasoning. We get too comfortable and comfortable people dont get why anything needs to change or why the change is better than the present state. Think about this: You are sitting in front of the TV or watching something otherwise interesting. Once something needs to change your position, you find that you are extremely comfortable, and it took you a while to find that spot. Would you now want to give it up? The truth is its not finding that sweet spot that gets you to stay in the same position.

Comfort Zone: The best illustration of comfort zone is this: A (wo)man does their best to acheive a result that gets them close enough to their original goal. They stop to take a breathe thinking they will continue. Soon they find out they are slumping after resting too long. At some point in their decline they hustle some more and get to a point closest to where they last where and relax again thinking if they did it once they will do it again, but not right now. The decline to a point thatys higher than their last inclination before they start to hustle all over again. It gets to a point where they cant go any higher and will not accept going any lower ( a threshold) and there they hover. Their comfort zone. A level otherwise known as mediocrity. But the are doing well, nothing changes.

Look go out and do something. You will get hurt, you will get pushed down, you will be rejected, but it if you keep learning and adjustting your strategy for optimum performance, you will win.

That was a long one. sorry