The story of the lion and its reflection: when you take the first step

A beautiful story, with a moral, that will leave you thinking about the way in which you can face your problems and take the much-feared first step, necessary to end them.

Surely you have gone through a situation where a problem becomes the air you breathe, the food you eat, the clothes you wear… everything revolves around this inconvenience, it is present every hour in your thoughts and emotions.

Pay attention to the story of the lion:

Once upon a time there was a lion who lived in a desert. The wind blew a lot there and therefore, the water in the ponds where all the animals usually drank never stayed still. The powerful gusts rippled the surface of the ponds and nothing was ever reflected in them.

One day the lion went into the forest, where he used to hunt and play in his free time, until he felt a little tired and thirsty. Searching for water, he came to a pond that contained the coolest, most tempting and gentle liquid that anyone could ever imagine.

So the lion approached the pond, stretched out his neck, and tried to take a good drink. Suddenly, he saw his own reflection and was scared, thinking that it was another lion that was in front of him.

“This water must belong to another lion, I better leave here, very carefully,” thought the animal. He backed away, but then thirst made him return to the pond again. Another time he saw the head of a fearsome lion with a great mane staring back at him from the surface of the water.

The lion in this story crouched down, waiting for the right moment to scare away the “other lion.” As he was accustomed to do to mark territory or show that he was in a place, he opened his jaws and gave a terrible roar. But as soon as he bared his teeth, of course, the “other lion’s” mouth also opened; and to our lion this seemed a horrible and dangerous sight.

Time and time again the lion would move away, but then he would gain courage, return to the pond and have the same experience. After a long time, however, he was so thirsty and desperate that he decided: “With another lion or without another lion, I will still drink from that pond!” As soon as the lion buried his face in the water… the “other lion” disappeared!”

Anguish, anxiety and depression do not take long to appear when problems exist. There seems to be nothing you can do to reverse the situation and find a solution. You stay paralyzed and don’t know how to act. You certainly know this feeling.

It is true that sometimes it helps to get away from the problem a little, distance yourself and ask for help, but it is also true that it is quite difficult to make that decision.

One of the keys to solving a problem is to work on “taking the first step.” Then you will decide on the fly how everything continues. But if you don’t climb the first rung, you will never reach the top of the ladder. It is normal that, when you face a project and everything remains to be done, fears and insecurities multiply.

This being the case, it is necessary to create opportunities and not wait for the solution to fall from the sky. Especially, it is important to eliminate all psychological obstacles or obstacles that do not allow you to move forward.

Think how many times the real problem is, precisely, not knowing how to deal with it. It is normal to feel afraid, to want to avoid the situation, to wish with all the fervor in the world that things would change or improve, etc. However, fear is a great barrier that only serves to make everything worse.

It may sound very easy to write or read, but not so easy to put into practice. Maybe it is time to become a little more of a lion and know the difference between trying and deciding. When you just try, it’s easier to give up, when you hesitate, you’re more likely to fail. Instead, by doing something and seeing the changes, you will feel empowered to move forward and take a new step or climb another step.

You decide what position to take. Are you ready to be “the king of the jungle”?