When some native people want to catch monkeys, they hollow out a coconut shell by cutting a small hole at one end. The hole is small enough to barely allow a monkey’s hand. Some peanuts would be placed inside this hollowed shell and the connect the coconut shell to a thin, strong cord and wait in hiding for the monkeys.

When a monkey discovers the nuts inside the shell, he reaches in and grasps them in his fist. Remember that the hole is small and it will not allow any tightly clenched fist to escape. At this precise moment, the native pulls on the cord and the monkey is caught. Do you know why? The monkey will not let go of those peanuts to save his life and he is caught.

What is more important? The peanuts or the monkey’s life?

This is exactly how most people behave. Too often, people hold tightly to their peanut ideas for fear that they may loose them. But the truth is that, these very ideas are the ones that hold people captive and prevent them from achieving their dreams. So, if you want to achieve your dreams, you have got to let go of your peanut ideas.

What are these peanut ideas?

They are false assumptions that have been preventing you from taking the necessary steps. If I may ask you, why haven’t you achieved your dreams? What is keeping you from living the kind of life you want to live? Is it your employer? Government? As long as you keep believing that someone else is responsible for your success, you will not take the necessary steps and accept responsibility for your life.

Today, most people expect government to do everything for them. Government is not the answer. The answer lies in you. You alone is responsible for your ultimate welfare. The sooner you realise this, the quicker you can start on the road to success.

Are you afraid of failing? I have since learnt that most successful people have more failures than failures do. But they keep going. You don’t drown by falling in water; you only drown by staying there. Failure in itself is not bad. One good failure might teach more about success than four or five years at the university. It can be the best thing that happened to you if learnt from it and apply the lessons thereafter. Choose this day to let go and you will see your dreams come true before your eyes.