If you put a flea in a jar and tightly screw on the lid, the flea will try to jump as high as it can.
But soon, the flea accepts its limit.
From that point on, even if you take off the lid, the flea will never, ever jump any higher than the perceived lid.
Humans work the same way. If you perceive a limit– if you’re continually slapped down, or if your actions seem to make no difference– you might just stop trying. If effort expended never achieves a desired result, effort stops. That’s when you feel demoralized and disempowered in your work.
But here’s the reality:
You always have options. You always have the ability to make choices, and move forward, and leap higher.
There is no jar.
There is no lid.
There is only a question of how high you’re willing to leap.
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Loved this. Stimulating and thought provoking.
In his book, Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas, author Bill Ballentine devotes a chapter to Uncle Roy and his talented fleas. Fleas are world-class athletes. Uncle Roy says in the book that “flea legs, of only 1/20 of an inch long, can propel the insect into a high jump of almost eight inches, a broad jump of thirteen inches, more than one hundred times its body length…If a human’s legs were this strong, a person…could leap groundwise 700 feet or straight up 450 feet, soaring over the torch of the Statue of Liberty with 145 feet to spare” (Ballentine 242). No wonder fleas were such sought-after circus performers.
The flea in the jar hit a nerve with me today. I am no longer that flea because of people like Larry Kendall and Sally Hogshead. I did however share this story with a co-worker who has been living her life like that flea for way too long. She asked why I wanted her to read the story, I said because you should and she read it out loud. Suddenly that ray of sunshine appeared and she woke up as a lovely person, no longer the flea that was limited.
Thanks,
Tom
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