Sometimes Inspirational stories, poems, speeches and quotes are all you need to get back to your life filled with positive energies.
In the monotony of our lives, we lose ourselves. Our souls yearn for energy to cut us free from the burden of trying so hard without direction. Sometimes a good book or some nice inspirational stories will fill us with positive energies to move ahead in life. Inspiration awakens us to new possibilities by allowing us to surpass our boundaries.
Therefore, we have listed five Inspirational short stories to awaken your soul and fill you with life or at least make your heart smile.
The Elephant’s Rope
Once a man was passing by some elephants, and he suddenly stopped, dazzled by the fact that such mighty and strong creatures were tied only by weak and thin ropes on their legs. It was obvious that the strength of such a mighty being could, at any time, break away from there. But, for some reason, they did not.
He saw an elephant trainer nearby and asked why the elephants just stood there and made no attempts to break free. “Well”, replied the elephant trainer,” when the elephants were younger and less powerful, we used the same ropes to tie them. At that age, these ropes were enough to hold them. As the elephant grew up, they were conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe that the ropes can still hold them, so never try to break free.”
The man was amazed by the trainer’s answer. These powerful animals could at any time free themselves from their restraints, but they are stuck right where they are because they believed they were incapable of doing so.
Like these elephants, many of us go through life holding onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before.
Failure is part of learning; we should never give up trying. Because we might be just an attempt away from breaking free.
One-armed Champion:
An energetic young boy despite the fact that he was born without a left arm joined to learn judo with an old Japanese Judo master.
The old Japanese Judo master taught him a very exciting judo throw during the first week of the training. In the second week, he was asked to practice the same judo move. Every other week the young boy was taught to practice the same technique over and over again. He could see other students learning different Judo techniques, but he couldn’t understand why even after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.
“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”
The Sensei replied – “Just focus on this one throw. This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know”
The little boy did not quite understand what his teacher was up to but continued his training as his Sensei instructed.
Several months later, the Sensei took the boy to his first tournament. The young boy was terrified to enter the tournament filled with other well-trained and experienced Judo Players. Surprising himself and the audience, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third one was a little harder, but the young boy pulled off the technique – the only technique he knew, and won. The fourth round amazingly went the same way and the young boy found himself in the tournament final facing a much bigger, stronger and tougher opponent. For some time in the finals, the young boy without an arm appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt during the match, the referee called for a time-out. The referee was about to stop the match, but the old Sensei intervened and insisted on letting the boy continue.
After the match resumed, his opponent made a mistake and dropped his guard. Promptly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. The boy deftly used his one and only move throughout the tournament and came out as a winner.
On the way home, the Sensei and the boy reviewed every move in each and every match the boy. Surprised by his own victory, the boy summoned the courage to ask the Sensei how he was able to win the tournament with only one move.
“You won for two reasons,” the Sensei answered. “First, with several months of dedicated practice, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for the move you learned is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”
With the boy’s hard work and the Sensei’s sagacity, the boy’s biggest weakness was transformed into his biggest strength.
Sharks in Life
The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held many fishes for decades. The fishermen, therefore, had to go further out to sea to catch their supply of fish and the fishing boat got bigger and bigger. Farther the fishermen went to procure fish, the longer it took them to bring the fish in. So by the time they reached the market, the fishes were no longer fresh.
To solve this problem, fishermen installed freezers on their boats. They would freeze the caught fish in it. This helped in preserving the fish for a longer period of time, but the freshness, as the Japanese desired, could not be retained. The price of frozen fish started going down.
Then, the worried fishermen installed fish tanks. They would catch fish and keep them in the tanks, fin to fin. The fishes would thrash around a little but stopped moving afterward. They were not dead, only tired and dull. Unfortunately, dull and sluggish fish did not taste fresh.
So how did the Japanese fishermen solve the problem? To keep the fish fresh and lively throughout the journey, the fishermen added a small shark to their tanks. The shark would eat a few fish, but the remaining ones were in a lively state when they reached the market. The shark created a challenge for the fish and kept them active throughout the journey.
Life gets dull when we live too easily when we live without challenges. It is the challenges that help us grow and keep us lively. So we should consider the problems and challenges as motivators for moving forward in life. Without challenges, we become complacent, life becomes boring and purposeless
Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment.”
L. Ron Hubbard
Shake it off and step up
Once a man and his donkey were walking past a desolate path, and suddenly, the donkey fell into a deep hole on the ground. Luckily the donkey was not hurt by the fall and cried for his master’s help. His master tried hard to get it out, but all of his attempts failed. Envisioning the poor donkey’s death from starvation in the deserted place. The man decided to give the donkey a less painful death by burying it alive.
The man started pouring soil into the pit with an intention of burying it alive. But as each spadeful of dirt from above hit the donkey, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up on the growing mound of earth. With more soil poured in by the man, the donkey rose higher. Eventually, the mound grew high enough for him to jump out of the pit.
To the man’s amazement, he saw his old donkey jump out of the pit and trot away!
In life, you may be thrown all kinds of dirt on you. But the trick is to shake it off and take a step up to rise to success. We can get out of the deepest pits, not by giving up on problems, but by learning from them. Just shake it off and take a step up.
The starfish
Once a man was wandering on a deserted beach on a lovely morning. The sun was shining and the sea looked amazing. As he strolled along the beach, he could see a man going back and forth between the surf’s edge and the beach. As he approached the man, he noticed that he was throwing starfishes into the sea. The man noticed hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand brought by the tides.
The man was stuck by the apparent vanity of the task. There were hundreds of starfish on the beach and many of them were sure to perish as the sun grew stronger by the day. But the man continued the task of picking up a starfish one by one and throwing them into the sea.
“I must ask, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” he asked as he approached the man throwing the starfish.
The man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die soon.”
Observing the frugality of the task, the man said, “ There are thousands of starfish stranded on the beach. There is no way you can throw all of them back to the surf. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The person looked at the man, stooped down and picked up one more starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. He turned back to the man and replied: “It sure made a difference to that one!”
Often we get overwhelmed by the challenges of the world as it seems to be humongous and unconquerable. We may feel like our actions are trivial. But this should not stop us from our attempt to create positive change in the world. We often forget and ignore the impact of our actions on the world. Sometimes even our tiniest act of kindness may be affecting someone in a great way.
Hope these inspirational short stories charged your spirit, helped you to gain a new perspective in your life or at least made you smile.
