You are not a Barracuda!

Sometimes ago, scientist carried out a simple experiment on a barracuda (marine fish). They put the barracuda into a big glass aquarium and began to feed the barracuda with small fishes. The barracuda would swim towards the small fishes and in one gulp would swallow them. They continued putting the small fishes into the glass container as food for the barracuda. Then one day the scientist put a glass partition at the center of the glass aquarium. They put the small fishes into the opposite side of the glass aquarium. As the barracuda approached to have it’s food, it would hit against the glass partition. This puzzled the barracuda, but it kept on trying.

And it kept on failing and hitting against the glass partition until one day, it stopped trying. The scientists then removed the glass partition, and the small fishes were released to swim all over the glass aquarium. The amazing discovery was that the barracuda did not attempt to go for the fishes. It had been conditioned to think that it would only hit against the glass partition. The sad thing was that, eventually, the barracuda died surrounded with abundance of food.

Moral of the story…

Just like the barracuda, most of us stop ourselves from trying again just because we have experienced failures in the past. We think that since we failed before, trying again would be futile as the result would probably be the same. We prefer to die rather than try, just like the barracuda. We have been conditioned not to try anymore because of the fear of failure. To be successful we have to get rid of this limiting belief, and accept a new and empowering belief, “the future does not equal the past”. What’s past is just history, the future will be different.

If we have failed earlier, we need not worry, just stand up and try again. It doesn’t mean that we are going to fail all the time. So let’s not get hit by the phobia, of losing again. Success will not come in the first try. We use the ‘trial and error method’ to achieve success; this means that if we have not failed before, you are not going to discover how to succeed.