Monat: Oktober 2013

There existed a psychotherapist who believed that many of the problems people brought to him were characterized by the existence of ‘fish’ in their dreams. One day a client came to him and was discussing the problems he had. ”Tell me,” said the psychotherapist, “did you dream last night?” “I might have done,” replied the client. “And tell me, in this dream was there a river?” “I don’t think so,” replied the client. “Well, was there any water, if not a river?” “I guess there might have been.” “And was there a pool on the ground?” “I couldn’t be certain but it’s possible,” the client replied. “And in this pool could there have been a fish?” “I can’t rule out the possibility that there might have been a fish.” “Aha!” said the psychotherapist. “I knew it!”

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them

In India elephant keepers train baby elephants to stay put by tying a rope, with a stake on the one side, around one leg and placing the stake into the ground. The baby elephant pulls and pulls on the rope to no avail. This teaches the elephant that no matter what he does he cannot get away when attached to the rope. Later when the elephant is grown up and the keeper wants the elephant to stay put all he does is to tie a small piece of rope on that leg and the giant elephant is held to the spot by his own mind.

This is the story of two frogs. One frog was fat and the other skinny. One day, while searching for food, they inadvertently jumped into a vat of milk. They couldn’t get out, as the sides were too slippery, so they were just swimming around.
The fat frog said to the skinny frog, „Brother frog, there’s no use paddling any longer. We’re just going to drown, so we might as well give up.“ The skinny frog replied, „Hold on brother, keep paddling. Somebody will get us out.“ And they continued paddling for hours.
After a while, the fat frog said, „Brother frog, there’s no use. I’m becoming very tired now. I’m just going to stop paddling and drown. It’s Sunday and nobody’s working. We’re doomed. There’s no possible way out of here.“ But the skinny frog said, „Keep trying. Keep paddling. Something will happen, keep paddling.“ Another couple of hours passed.
The fat frog said, „I can’t go on any longer. There’s no sense in doing it because we’re going to drown anyway. What’s the use?“ And the fat frog stopped. He gave up. And he drowned in the milk. But the skinny frog kept on paddling.
Ten minutes later, the skinny frog felt something solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk into butter and he hopped out of the vat.