DROP THE BANANA!
4 July 2007
Hi Guys
Yet another of the men who make up our weekly Men’s Breakfast has provided something for us to chew on this week. Morne Swanepoel is a man “out of Africa”. Here he shares a little truth he’s found which he knows is true.
“You have probably heard about a rather interesting method they sometimes use when trying to catch a monkey for the zoo. It seems that trappers take a small cage out into the jungle. Inside the cage they place a bunch of bananas and then they close it, locking the bananas inside. Now a monkey coming along and spotting the bananas, will reach through the narrow rungs of the cage and grab a banana. But he can't get it out. And no matter how hard he tries – twisting his hand back and forth – he can't pull his hand through the rungs while hanging on to the banana. And even with the approaching trappers he won't let go of the banana. For the trappers, it's simply a matter then, of coming up and grabbing the monkey. Now if you were standing there in the jungle, watching all of this happen, and wanted to save the monkey, you might yell in exasperation, "Drop the Banana!"
In the same way, we sometimes hang on to our problems and attitudes – attitudes that cloud our perspective, attitudes that alter our actions, attitudes that sidetrack our best intentions – and won't let go of them, even when it would be in our best interest to do so.
Why is that? Why are we continually plagued by long outstanding problems?
Why aren't they overcome or at least brought under control?
Could it quite possibly be that that is the way we want it? We can get so comfortable doing what we have always done that we don't want to overcome the inertia of continuing on as we are.
We don't want to drop the banana in our life because we really enjoy just doing what we have always done even if that behavior is not serving us well. There is a saying that "when you're in a hole, stop digging."
Sometimes we just have to bring everything to a complete halt. Make an assessment of what is going on and make the appropriate correction. The first step in changing your behavior is to stop doing the destructive action that got you there in the first place. Self-examination is necessary for change. But it can be uncomfortable. Comfort is one of the most demotivating forces on earth. It stops us from growing.
Sometimes we say, "I tried but I just can't do it." When we do, we need to catch ourselves – bells should go off in our head, fireworks should burst in the sky, we should immediately go into red alert—because we're really just kidding ourselves.
In fact, if we face reality, it's more likely, that it's not "we can't," or "we tried," it's that we really don't want to. We might want someone else to change. We might even fervently pray that they do so. But we don't really want to. We like things just they way they are. Trying is easier than doing. Doing takes discipline—consistent discipline.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
The problem is within. It's not parents. It's not other people. It's not our circumstances. It's us.
Actually about 80% of our problems are of our own making. A successful person always says, "What is it in me that I need to change?" They're open to the fact that they're not perfect.
Be blessed this week. Morne and Fred
Hi Guys
Yet another of the men who make up our weekly Men’s Breakfast has provided something for us to chew on this week. Morne Swanepoel is a man “out of Africa”. Here he shares a little truth he’s found which he knows is true.
“You have probably heard about a rather interesting method they sometimes use when trying to catch a monkey for the zoo. It seems that trappers take a small cage out into the jungle. Inside the cage they place a bunch of bananas and then they close it, locking the bananas inside. Now a monkey coming along and spotting the bananas, will reach through the narrow rungs of the cage and grab a banana. But he can't get it out. And no matter how hard he tries – twisting his hand back and forth – he can't pull his hand through the rungs while hanging on to the banana. And even with the approaching trappers he won't let go of the banana. For the trappers, it's simply a matter then, of coming up and grabbing the monkey. Now if you were standing there in the jungle, watching all of this happen, and wanted to save the monkey, you might yell in exasperation, "Drop the Banana!"
In the same way, we sometimes hang on to our problems and attitudes – attitudes that cloud our perspective, attitudes that alter our actions, attitudes that sidetrack our best intentions – and won't let go of them, even when it would be in our best interest to do so.
Why is that? Why are we continually plagued by long outstanding problems?
Why aren't they overcome or at least brought under control?
Could it quite possibly be that that is the way we want it? We can get so comfortable doing what we have always done that we don't want to overcome the inertia of continuing on as we are.
We don't want to drop the banana in our life because we really enjoy just doing what we have always done even if that behavior is not serving us well. There is a saying that "when you're in a hole, stop digging."
Sometimes we just have to bring everything to a complete halt. Make an assessment of what is going on and make the appropriate correction. The first step in changing your behavior is to stop doing the destructive action that got you there in the first place. Self-examination is necessary for change. But it can be uncomfortable. Comfort is one of the most demotivating forces on earth. It stops us from growing.
Sometimes we say, "I tried but I just can't do it." When we do, we need to catch ourselves – bells should go off in our head, fireworks should burst in the sky, we should immediately go into red alert—because we're really just kidding ourselves.
In fact, if we face reality, it's more likely, that it's not "we can't," or "we tried," it's that we really don't want to. We might want someone else to change. We might even fervently pray that they do so. But we don't really want to. We like things just they way they are. Trying is easier than doing. Doing takes discipline—consistent discipline.
I don't want the cheese, I just want to get out of the trap.
The problem is within. It's not parents. It's not other people. It's not our circumstances. It's us.
Actually about 80% of our problems are of our own making. A successful person always says, "What is it in me that I need to change?" They're open to the fact that they're not perfect.
Be blessed this week. Morne and Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 12:21 PM
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