There are two figurative animals inside all of us; an ant and an elephant, and they are chained together. If they are pulling on each other, one is definitely going to win. The choice of direction is up to you by what you feed them.
The book The Ant and the Elephant by Vince Poscente describes the relationship between these two internal animals. Did you know that in one second of thinking your conscious mind stimulates 2,000 neurons, while your subconscious thinking stimulates 4,000,000,000 neurons. This is 2,000,000 times more powerful. (See why it’s called an ant and an elephant?) The conscious focuses on the thoughts you think while the subconscious focuses on the images you visualize. Both of these put together should influence the actions you take.
Einstein has been quoted to say that imagination is everything and is even more important than knowledge. If you are trying to get your ant to drag around your elephant you are setting yourself up for failure. Everything that goes into your mind feeds your elephant. The thoughts you think and especially those coming from others. We are very influenced by people we associate with and if they are not feeding our elephant with beneficial thoughts, then the ant is doomed.
Watching TV is no more a bad use of our time than eating food. However, what are we putting into our minds when watching TV? Advertisers are very smart in that they don’t just show one commercial and then realize that their message is internalized. They know that it takes repetition to infuse their product into our mind. Thus, when watching commercials over and over again (which my wife and I noticed that Hulu repeats itself much more than normal) will start to internalize itself and feed your elephant. Another thing to be cautious of is the time that you are using. By watching TV you are not only dedicating your time to watching but also undedicating your time to something else. Watching TV is not free!
There are several examples regarding your ant and elephant on this CD. Some of which are positive and some that are negative, but all leave an impact regarding how our minds can affect our reality.
“What do I do now?”
When having coffee the other day, Darrell Jung quoted to me, “Awareness is not cure.” While awareness may not be what gets us to feed our elephant positive reinforcement, it certainly is the start of the journey. Here are my suggestions
- Get more information about the ant and the elephant to understand the concept
- Read the book
- Start the Mental Fitness Challenge
- Borrow the CD
- Start being aware of what is feeding your elephant
- Friends
- Media
- Family
- Develop a diet of what you want to feed your elephant
- Consistently feed it everyday
- When someone tries to feed it something you don’t want, replace it with what you do want
- Take action in the direction you want your elephant to go
Think positive, dream big, take action!
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