Flying a kite

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.
William James
1894 – 1963

One day, I was in a park watching a young boy fly a kite. His father had helped him get the kite airborne and had played out the string to the end. The kite had attained a good altitude; the string was probably two to three hundred yards long, so the kite was flying quite high. But it was clear that it could go higher if it weren’t for the young boy holding the handle.

Well, I’m not sure if the boy was getting bored or just playing around, but he started passing the handle from his right hand to his left. While he was shifting the handle, a puff of wind pulled at the kite and it slipped out of his grasp. With nothing to hold the kite in place, it immediately began to rise.

The young boy cried out to his father, but it was too late. The kite handle was thirty to forty feet in the air and rising. I was amazed at how quickly the kite took off once it was no longer held back.

It struck me that a lot of people are just like that kite. There’s a natural tendency for individuals to rise to their potential. But a lot of people are like the kite while the boy clutched the handle: they’re being held back.

The boy was holding the kite back: when he let go of the handle, the kite took off. But what’s holding you back? Who is holding your handle? This is the interesting part: you have hold of the handle. All you need to do is let go and you can soar like the kite.

Typically, when I tell people they’re holding themselves back, they object. “Why would I hold myself back? How am I holding myself back?” It all comes down to the way you think about things. Your thoughts are like strings, keeping you fixed in place. Change your thoughts and you’ll rise like the kite.

Which thoughts are holding you back? It’s the thought that something or someone else is responsible for your circumstances; the beliefs that you’ve accepted about your abilities; your fear that things might not happen the way you want. All of these things hold you down, just like the string held the kite. Learn to get rid of these negative thoughts and you’ll be free to take off.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.
William Shakespeare
1564 – 1616