I heard this story about a circus elephant roped to a wooden stake on the radio. Not a high tensile rope with a stake buried ten feet in the ground: a simple rope and a shallow, old wooden stake holding an enormous, mighty elephant in place.

The elephant is strong enough to walk away and yank the wooden stake out of the ground. Why doesn’t it?

The story goes that the elephant is tied by a heavy chain to an immovable steel stake while young and weak. No matter how much the young elephant struggles, it cannot break the chain or move the stake from the ground. From that moment on, no matter how big the elephant grows, it believes we cannot escape the stake.

If the stake is present, the elephant is impotent.

What wooden stakes are holding us back? What beliefs from a younger, weaker version of ourselves are we irrationally tied down by? What if we moved and broke the chain? Who says you cannot run a certain distance? Who says you cannot set a new PR? Why can’t you start running again?

Why do we let our powerful selves be tied down?

Bests wishes on chasing your running goals!

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