If you extended it by one what would that mean to you?
April 13, 2010Your website won’t grow your business
April 15, 2010This post is a story that comes from Orison Swett Marden, (1850-1924) founder of Success Magazine. He is considered to be the founder of the modern personal development industry, with his “New Thought Philosophy” teaching positive thinking, life skills and discipline.
The Young Lion
A young lion, as the fable runs, was one day playing alone in the forest while his mother slept.
As the different objects attracted his attention, he thought he would explore a bit and see what the great world beyond his home was like. Before he realized it, he had wandered so far that he could not find his way back.
He was lost.
Very much frightened, he ran frantically in every direction calling piteously for his mother, but no mother responded.
Weary with his wanderings, he did not know what to do, when a sheep, whose offspring had been taken from her, hearing his pitiful cries, made friends with the lost lion, and adopted him.
The sheep became very fond of her foundling, which in a short while grew so much larger than herself that at times she was almost afraid of it.
The foster mother and her adopted lived very happily together, until one day a magnificent lion appeared, sharply outlined against the sky, on the top of an opposie hill. He shook his tawny inane and uttered a terrific roar, which echoed through the hills.
The sheep mother stood trembling, paralyzed with fear. But the moment this strange sound reached his ears, the young lion listened as though spellbound, and a strange feeling which he had never before experienced surged through his being until be was all a-quiver.
The lion’s roar had touched a chord in his nature that had never before been touched. It aroused a new force within him which he had never felt before.
New desires, a strange new consciousness of power possessed him. A new nature stirred in him, and instinctively, without a thought of what he was doing, he answered the lion’s call with a corresponding roar.
Trembling with mingled fear, surprise and bewilderment at the new powers aroused within him, the awakened animal gave his foster mother a pathetic glance, and then, with a tremendous leap, started toward the lion on the hill.
The lost lion had found himself.
Up to this he had gamboled around his sheep mother just as though he were a lamb developing into a sheep, never dreaming he could do anything that his companions could not do, or that he had any more strength than the ordinary sheep.
He never imagined that there was within him a power which would strike terror to the beasts of the jungle. He simply thought he was a sheep, and would run at the sight of a dog and tremb1e at the howl of a wolf.
Now he was amazed to see the dogs, the wolves, and other animals which formerly had so terrified him flee from him.
—————-
There is in every normal human being a Sleeping lion. It is just a question of arousing it, just a question of something happening that will awaken us, stir the depths of our being, and arouse the sleeping power within us.
Just as the young lion, after it had once discovered that it was a lion would never again be satisfied to live the life of a sheep, when we discover that we are more than mere clay, when we at last become Conscious that we are more than human, that we are gods in the making, we shall never again be satisfied to live the life of common clods of earth.
We shall feel a new sense of power welling up within us, a power which we never before dreamed we possessed, and never he quite the same again, never again he content with low-flying ideals, with a cheap success.
Ever after we will aspire. We will look up, struggle up and on to higher and ever higher planes.
Whether it is your leadership, your life purpose, your company vision, your real personality…….have you found your Roar?
Thanks to MacJewell for the image
4 Comments
Wow, Adrian, what a great story. I literally got goosebumps as I read this. It just goes to show you that you never know your true potential and what strength we all have within us.
Thanks so much for thought-provoking story.
Karen
.-= Karen´s last blog ..The Number One Shortcut To Be Successful In Life =-.
Hi Karen,
Thanks for stopping by and glad that you liked the story. It’s an old one but timeless and still very thought provoking.
Best wishes,
Adrian
Hi,
Good story about leadership. Well, everyone can develop their capacity to lead. When someone is committed and practises using their leadership capabilities at all levels in their life, then they can develop their own potential as a leader.
Ben Tien
.-= Free Covert Hypnosis´s last blog ..The Styles of Leadership =-.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for stopping by the blog and for your comment.
You’re absolutely right that choice and commitment are key to developing your leadership capabilities. What sort of leadership capabilities are you currently working on?
Adrian