I heard the best story yesterday while taking the Landmark Forum.
The question was raised – How do you catch a monkey? I personally didn’t have a clue, yet many of the class particpants offered a guess. The answer will astound you, yet is so simple. Monkeys just love bananas. It’s like a passion – similar to our love for chocolate. The monkey-catcher builds a box trap with a hole that a monkey-hand can fit through and covers the box. Inside the box they place a banana. The hole in the box is created just for the size of the monkey-hand. The hole is not big enough for the monkey and the banana to fit through at the same time.
Monkey comes along and wants that banana, and I mean really wants that banana. Monkey puts his hand into the box and grabs that banana. Ooops, he can’t get the banana out, and his hand won’t come out either. He tugs and tugs and tugs, kicks the box with his feet, ouch! He pulls, he struggles, and still can’t get that banana out. Monkey-hunter comes by, throws a net over the monkey, and voila – monkey is caught.
I know you’ve figured out the solution for what the monkey could have done to get free, the answer is in the title of this blog. All of that struggle and efforting to get the banana only meant more struggle. “I’ll get that banana no mater what it takes even if everything I’m doing is not working and I’ll die trying.” “Oh, and by the way,” the monkey says, “I’m right about that!”
There’s no other time but right now to drop the banana. What isn’t working on your Website? What message is still inside you that you want to get out to the world? What is not working in your life or business that keeps persisting and you’re not doing anything about it. What do you need for your Web presence to be spectacular and reach the prospects who are craving your services.
All you need to do is to let go of whatever it is that is stopping you and embrace things the way they are, then choose your next action. Dropping the banana means letting go, asking for help, being open to receive, and driving your bus in the direction you want your bus to go.
Ok, time to find my next banana!
[This blog post is dedicated to Susan Eckel, Landmark Forum Leader]