Darren Hardy, publisher of SUCCESS magazine and author of The Compound Effect, hammers the nail on the head of personal responsibility when he asks his readers if they have ever been bitten by an elephant. The next question ensues, “How about a mosquito?”, and the comparison between the two is monumentally profound.
It’s the little things in life that will bite us, not necessarily the big things that we think that we are scare of; it’s our little decisions and, as Hardy highlights, our “seemingly inconsequential choices that are of grave concern.” To quote Hardy: “Your biggest challenge isn’t that you’ve intentionally been making bad choices. Heck, that would be easy to fix. Your biggest challenge is that you’ve been sleepwalking through your choices. Half the time, you’re not even aware of you’re making them!…Nobody intends to become obese, go through bankruptcy, or get a divorce, but often (if not always) those consequences are the result of a series of small, poor choices.”
The key to success is found in taking 100% responsibility for the choices you have made in your life and the choices that you are making today that will shape your life tomorrow. Remember, elephants don’t bite, but mosquitoes most definitely do, so pay close attention to the environment of mosquitoes that you are unintentionally exposing yourself and stop being so scared of the elephants in your life.