50 Stories to Move People (M. Parkinson)
I would like to introduce "50 Stories to Move People" by M. Parkinson. This book provides tips for goal setting, action planning, and motivation for execution through short stories. In this article, I will delve into my reflections while introducing three of those stories.
"The Ignorant Thief": Reflecting Your Own Value in Your Goals
The following short story, "The Ignorant Thief," explains the importance of objectively grasping the value you provide when setting goals.
This is a story about a thief from long ago who stole a wonderfully magnificent coat. The coat was made entirely of the finest materials, and the buttons were made of gold and silver.
When the thief returned after selling the coat to a merchant at the market, his best friend asked him how much he had sold it for. "One hundred silver coins," the thief replied. "You let go of that amazing coat for only one hundred silver coins?" his friend asked. "Is there any number higher than one hundred?" the thief asked back.
Since this is an episode involving the criminal act of theft, I have mixed feelings about it (laughs). However, this story points out that when setting goals, the key is how you estimate the value of the resources you possess.
In other words, if you do not find high value in what you possess, you cannot properly evaluate the results as compensation, making it difficult to set high goals. The importance of self-esteem manifests in areas like this as well.
"The Chained Elephant": Assumptions That Hold You Back
The next short story makes us aware of the brakes we have forgotten we are even conscious of.
Have you ever wondered about the elephants you see at circuses or zoos? It is because a large seven-meter elephant and a small baby elephant, no taller than a human's knee, are tied to the exact same size chain attached to a small stake.
It seems completely illogical to treat a large elephant and a small elephant the same way. You would want to say that a grown, large elephant should have a much larger and sturdier chain than a baby elephant. If an adult elephant wanted to, it could simply walk away and pull the stake out of the ground without any effort, just as a person might pull out a daisy, and it should be able to snap the chain as easily as breaking a twig.
That is the point. The grown elephant has forgotten what it is like to struggle to become free. A long time ago, when it was a baby, it learned that no matter how hard it tried, it would remain trapped and could never be free.
Even though it has grown into a full-grown elephant with the strength of ten adult men, the elephant believes it is a prisoner who cannot be free. It has given up on trying.
The baby elephant, constantly pulling on its chain, still has the desire to succeed. And it also has the belief that it can succeed.
From this story, I thought of two lessons: (1) Are you convinced that you cannot take on challenges or act freely because of trivial daily restrictions? (2) Even though you are already grown (an adult), are you trapped by past events and blaming that past for things not going well?
"The more I grow, the more strength I gain, the more freely and openly I can behave." Have you not thought this way? Without realizing that, in reality, the opposite is happening.
"When 'want to' becomes 'have to'"
The last short story I will introduce seems to hit on a certain aspect of human motivation.
My daughter came home from school and said, "Dad, all the girls at school are biting their nails. So I want to keep up with the trend, too." I said to my daughter,
"Well, I think you should definitely keep up with the trend. I also think trends are really important for girls. You are quite far behind the other girls. They have all been practicing. So, I think the best way for you to catch up with the other girls is to bite your nails thoroughly every day. If you set a time every day and bite them properly for fifteen minutes three times a day, I think you can catch up."
At first, my daughter worked on it with great enthusiasm and on time every session. After a while, she started late and finished early. And finally, one day she said, "Dad, from now on, I'm going to follow the new trend at school. Long nails."
Because things like this happen, I hesitate when telling others about my own habits. This is because I fear that by declaring them, the "want to" within me will take on a sense of obligation as a "have to," and the habit I worked so hard for will be interrupted or slowed down.
The speed at which "want to" turns into "have to" is abnormally fast, but the reverse feels very slow. I believe that by steadily building things up while incorporating that slowness, one can acquire a habit.