How to trap a monkey (video)

Hey everybody, this is Seth with SethPerler.com, and I’m glad you’re here.

I’m here today to tell you a quick story called “How to Trap a Monkey.” It’s a great story with a great moral at the end.

Here’s what happened.

A long time ago, there was a village surrounded by monkeys that lived all around it.

One day, the villagers decided they wanted to figure out how to trap a monkey. They tried anything and everything they could think of.

They threw rocks at the monkeys, but the monkeys were too fast and dodged them.

They shot arrows at the monkeys, but the monkeys were even too fast for the arrows. They dodged them and got away completely unscathed.

They tried using ropes to trap the monkeys, but that didn’t work.

They made nets and tried to catch them that way, but that didn’t work either.

The monkeys were simply too fast and too smart.

Finally, a little girl came up with an idea that she thought might work.

Here’s what she did.

She took a large log and hollowed it out completely.

Then she drilled a hole into the top of the log and sealed the sides so that it became an empty container with only a single hole at the top.

The hole was a very specific size.

It was exactly the size of a monkey’s arm.

Next, she dropped some nuts into the hollow log.

The monkeys loved these nuts. They were delicious, and they couldn’t get enough of them.

The nuts became the bait for her trap.

So how did the trap work?

One curious monkey came over after the girl had left and began investigating.

He looked through the hole and saw that the nuts were inside.

He decided he was going to steal them.

So he reached his arm into the hole and grabbed a handful of nuts.

When he tried to pull his arm back out, he discovered a problem.

His fist, now full of nuts, was too large to fit back through the hole.

He was trapped.

The girl walked over and picked up the monkey.

She had successfully caught it.

The monkey never let go of the nuts—even after she grabbed him.

So why is this story important?

Because we get trapped by our own minds.

We get trapped by our own thinking.

I work with students from elementary school all the way through graduate school, and every one of us has things that we hold onto that trap us.

We become prisoners of our own self-defeating thoughts.

Sometimes we believe we can’t do something.

Sometimes we tell ourselves that something is too hard.

Sometimes we don’t want to start because the task isn’t fun.

Those thoughts become obstacles that hold us back.

I don’t know what it is for you, but we all have our own kryptonite.

We all have things we refuse to let go of.

And if we don’t let go—if we don’t open our hand and pull it out of the trap—we remain stuck.

So here’s my question for you.

What thoughts do you need to let go of?

What thoughts keep repeating over and over in your mind that are no longer serving you?

What beliefs are holding you back from becoming your best self?

What thoughts are preventing you from accomplishing what you need to accomplish?

That’s all I have for you today.

It’s a very short story, but I hope it’s helpful.

I hope you can identify the things you’re holding onto—and have the courage to let them go.

Have an awesome evening, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Take care.