I am glad alot of people are enjoying the powerful life metaphor of the elephant trapped by its own beliefs. I would like to share with you another elephant metaphor, except this is about a prehistoric elephant known as a Mammoth.

One of my favorite movies is ICE AGE and ICE AGE 2. In this second installment, there was this female mammoth (again a very powerful creature) named Ally who was abandoned by her herd when she was young. She was raised by a family of possums (rodent like creatures) who taught her that she was a possum. Since she had never met any other mammoth before and the only thing around her were possums, she began to create an identity for herself that she was a possum. Becauae she believed she was a possum, she acted exactly like one. When birds of prey flew near, she would run and hide and even play dead.

At night, she would sleep upside down just like a possum. Like a possum, she would run from tree to tree, hiding from predators. One day, another mammoth named Manfred meets her and tells her that she is in fact a mammoth full of strength and power and not a possum. When Manfred gets her to look into her own reflection in the lake to convince her, she replies ‘wow! I am a big fat possum.’

What’s the meaning of this story and what can it teach us? Let me ask you this, ‘ how do you see yourself?’ Do you see yourself as a leader or a follower? Are you a shy person or are you an outgoing person? Are you a winner or are you a loser? Are you a possum or are you a mammoth. All of us see ourselves in a certain way and this is known as our IDENTITY!

Your identity is so important because it affects the decisions you make and the way you behave! The way you see yourself affects what you ask of yourself and the actions you take. If you see yourself as a leader, then you will tend to take charge of situations whenever there is an opportunity. If you see yourself as a follower, then you will always wait for someone else to take charge! If you see yourself as a winner, you will behave like one! You will set high goals for yourself and take responsibility for your life! Do winners fail and make mistakes? of course they do! But as a winner, you will tend to get up again and move on. As a winner, you will learn from your mistakes.

However, if you see yourself a a loser, then you will tend to keep giving excuses. You will tend to blame everything and everyone for your problems! You have a choice of how you want to see yourself. You have a choice of being a loser or a winner, a victor or a victim. You see, I believe that we are all born winners and that God has given us everything we need to succeed, which is amazing human potential and free will to use it!

The trouble is that alot of people have bought the idea that they are possums! Maybe becasue when they were growing up, people around them told them they were ‘stupid’, ‘lazy’, ‘shy’, ‘slow learner’ & ‘average’. If you do not know who YOU REALLY ARE (a powerful and amazing human being), you will allow others to define who you are. And once you choose to believe that you are a possum, even if you see the winner inside you at times, you will convince yourself that it was just luck (that you are a fat possum).

So, remember that you are a MAMMOTH of great potential, so stop acting like a possum! Although all of us are born in different families, have different friends and grow up in different environments, we have been given a power by our creator…the power to choose who we are! So choose wisely