Chapter Five

When our cows have been gifts from other people.

Curiously, many of the cows that keep us tied to a mediocre life have been gifts from others. Many of us often fall victim to the negative influences of other people; we accept their negative programming (cow) without question. By doing so, we allow them to plant false beliefs in our minds that limit us physically, emotionally, and intellectually.

These ideas, which have been programmed by our parents, teachers, relatives, friends, or even by complete strangers, end up making us believe that we are common, ordinary people. This is why today it is difficult for us to believe that we have the potential necessary to succeed and achieve great goals.

It is as if the failures of the past have forever closed the doors of opportunity for future success. However, keep in mind that the future does not have to be the same as the past, since we can always change, learn, and grow. Sadly, by the time most of us graduate from high school, we have been almost completely programmed for mediocrity. I know that sounds harsh, but it's true.

What's more, in their book Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century, Colin Rose and Malcolm J. Nicholl present the results of a study that showed that more than 82% of children who enter school at the age of five or six have great confidence in their ability to learn. However, by the age of 16, the percentage who still show this confidence in their own abilities has dropped to just 18%. It is inconceivable that during our formative years of school, when we should be developing our potential to the fullest, we instead develop so many limitations and false beliefs about our own abilities. The worst of all is that from then on we are accompanied by an almost unalterable tendency to accept mediocrity in all areas of our lives.

Expressions such as:

-I am in an unhappy relationship, but I believe that is how all marriages should be.

-I would like to start a new career, but I'm too old to change. Besides, I've never done anything else.

-I hate my profession, but I should be grateful that at least I have a job.

-I'm in terrible physical shape, but according to what I hear in the media, that's how most people are.

All these expressions denote an acceptance of mediocrity as a viable alternative. We end up accepting marriages that are going well instead of looking for an extraordinary relationship, because since we were children we have learned that extraordinary marriages do not exist, they are almost impossible, or if they do, something else will surely go wrong. And so, many couples live for years and even decades in mediocre marriages because they do not believe they can do anything to change the situation.

If from an early age you heard at home that wanting to earn a lot of money was a sign of greed and produced unhappiness and that the most prudent thing was to be content with the little you had, because it was better to have little and be happy than to want to have a lot and be unhappy, then don't be surprised that today you have little.

The constant repetition of expressions like these soon turns them into mental programs that direct our way of thinking and acting. Over time, these actions become habits that slowly shape our destiny. So it is these cows that are shaping your destiny. Remember the beautiful poem by Amado Nervo that says:

“...BECAUSE I see at the end of my ROUGH road THAT I WAS the ARCHITECT of my own destiny. THAT if I extracted the gall or the honey from things it is BECAUSE I PUT gall or tasty honey in them. WHEN I planted rose bushes, I always harvested roses...”