Always Be Optimistic

   There was a temple in a small town in which an elephant and his mahout lived. The elephant was a local hero, often respected and always loved by the people. 

    Every day, the mahavat with his elephant was taken for a walk through the busy streets of the market. While walking, the elephant did whatever he liked. 

   He would reach the bunch of bananas hanging in front of the shop with his trunk, and before the helpless shopkeeper could react, the bananas would be inside the elephant's mouth. He would turn his trunk towards another shop and bring down carefully arranged bunches of flowers Or he would snatch a coconut from a woman selling it on the road and crush it in his mouth like a walnut. 

   The mahout tried to stop the elephant from doing all this. but to no avail. The mahout attempted to beat the elephant with his stick, but it did not stop. Bananas and coconuts were so tempting that it was impossible to resist, And then one day, the clever mahout got an idea. 

   When he took the elephant out of the temple gate for a walk in the evening, the mahout would take out his stick to hold the elephant by its trunk, and the elephant would obediently place the mahout's stick in its trunk and move it around. He used to rotate there. 

   Now, as he was passing through the busy street of the market, the elephant looked longingly at the banana, but he was holding the stick by his trunk, so he had to leave the fruit. If he wants to grab the bananas, he would have to drop his stick, and that would mean offending the mahout. So the elephant took hold of the stick that the mahout had given him and continued walking down the road without disturbing the goods in the shops.

  The shopkeepers were pleased; their admiration for the temple elephant grew, and they often gave gifts to the mahout for the elephant. 

  "If you think about it, we're all like elephants to some extent. As we move through our lives, we become distracted by the temptations around us". And even though our mahouts—our parents, our teachers, and our bosses—tell us to stay focused and not get distracted, we continue to do so. 

   What we really need is that stick to hold on to. And that stick is usually a goal—a purpose—that excites us and keeps us on track. Once you identify a goal in life, you suddenly find yourself focused on doing everything possible to achieve it. 

   Like the trunk of an elephant, our minds also keep wandering. We need that stick to keep it centered. Have you ever been told, 'Don't do that, when you were doing something you shouldn't be doing? 

  Remember how you still went ahead and did it? So the best way to stop a person from doing something he shouldn't is to give him a chance to do something else. So identify your goal, stay focused, and always be optimistic.