Processionary caterpillars travel in long, undulating lines, one creature behind
the other. Jean Hanri Fabre, the French entomologist, once lead a group of these
caterpillars onto the rim of a large flowerpot so that the leader of the procession
found himself nose to tail with the last caterpillar in the procession, forming
a circle without end or beginning.
Through sheer force of habit and, of
course, instinct, the ring of caterpillars
circled the flowerpot for seven days and
seven nights, until they died from
exhaustion and starvation. An ample
supply of food was close at hand and
plainly visible, but it was outside the
range of the circle, so the caterpillars
continued along the beaten path.
People often behave in a similar
way. Habit patterns and ways of
thinking become deeply established,
and it seems easier and more
comforting to follow them
than to cope with change,
even when that change may
represent freedom, achievement,
and success.
If someone shouts, “Fire!” it
is automatic to blindly follow
the crowd, and many thousands
have needlessly died
because of it. How many stop
to ask themselves: Is this really
the best way out of here?
So many people “miss the
boat” because it's easier and
more comforting to follow — to
follow without questioning the qualifications
of the people just ahead —
than to do some independent thinking
and checking.
A hard thing for most people to fully
understand is that people in
such numbers can be
so wrong, like the
caterpillars going
around and
around the edge
of the flowerpot, with
life and food just a
short distance away.
If most people are living
that way, it must be
right, they think. But a little checking will
reveal that throughout all recorded history
the majority of mankind has an
unbroken record of being wrong about
most things, especially important
things. For a time we thought the earth
was flat and later we thought the sun,
stars, and planets traveled around the
Earth. Both ideas are now considered
ridiculous, but at the time they were
believed and defended by the vast
majority of followers. In the hindsight of
history we must have looked like those
caterpillars blindly following the follower
out of habit rather than stepping out of
line to look for the truth.
It's difficult for people to come to the
understanding that only a small minority
of people ever really get the word
about life, about living abundantly and
successfully. Success in the important
departments of life seldom comes naturally,
no more naturally than success at
anything — a musical instrument,
sports, fly-fishing, tennis, golf, business,
marriage, parenthood.
But for some reason most people
wait passively for success to come to
them — like the caterpillars
going around in circles,
waiting for sustenance,
following
nose to tail — living
as other people are
living in the unspoken,
tacit assumption that other people
know how to live successfully.
It's a good idea to step out of the line
every once in a while and look around to
see if the line is going where we want it
to go. If it is not, it might be time for a
new leader and a new direction.
Falling Isn't Failing ... Unless
You Fail to Get Up
For those who have tried repeatedly
to break a habit of some kind, only to
repeatedly fail, Mary Pickford said,
“Falling is not failing, unless you fail to
get up.” Most people who finally win the
battle over a habit they have
wanted to change have done
so only after repeated failures.
And it's the same with
most things.
The breaking of a longtime
habit does seem like the
end of the road at the time —
the complete cessation of
enjoyment. Suddenly dropping
the habit so fills our
minds with the desire for the
old habitual way that, for a
while, it seems there will no
longer be any peace, any sort
of enjoyment. But that's not
true. New habits form in a surprisingly
short time, and a whole new world
opens up to us.
So, if you've been trying to start in a
new direction, you might do well to
remember the advice of Mary Pickford:
breaking an old habit isn't the end of
the road; it's just a bend in the road.
And falling isn't failing, unless you don't
get up.
Source: The Essence of Success by
Earl Nightingale. Edited by Carson V.
Conant.
