Horses, Fleas, and Breaking our Limits

When often find ourselves in situations where we wish that we were doing more than we were. Maybe we wish that we were making a bigger impact, want to see more progression, or wish we could achieve the goals that we’ve set. Sometimes, we’re held back by our own limitations that we’ve set for ourselves. What can horses and fleas teach us about breaking our limits?

Horses are known for their strength and their speed. But, horses can be tied with a light rope to something as light as a plastic patio chair, or lightly tied to a post with nearly no knot, and won’t attempt to run. A horse can definitely break a light rope if it wanted to run. It could simply drag the plastic patio chair or pull itself from a rope draped over a post. But why doesn’t it? At a young age, horses are taught that they can’t run when they’re tied to something solid with a strong rope with strong knots. As they get older, they internalize that they can’t run when they’re tied to something. A horse that has been taught that it can’t run when tied off to something, regardless of what it is, has a learned behavior that it can’t run.

A flea can jump quite high. However, when placed into a jar with a lid, they learn that when they jump high to escape the confines of the jar, they smash against the lid. After repeatedly hitting the lid of the jar, the flea will learn that jumping higher won’t help them escape the jar. Once the flea has been conditioned with this belief, even if the lid of the jar is removed, the flea will only jump as high as the imaginary barrier that they had once experienced. Surprisingly, when the fleas have offspring, those offspring inherit that same limiting belief. The fleas are contained by their own limiting belief. Once placed in a jar with over fleas who have more room to jump, the flea will only jump as high as they could previously, but will learn, with time, that they can jump as high as the fleas that they are placed with in the new, taller jar with a higher lid.

Horses and fleas teach of the power of conditioning. They demonstrate how we may choose to restrict ourselves because of previous experiences, even when those limits are no longer present. We don’t need to carry these restrictions with us, and can adapt. Horses, despite their power, choose to remain tied when conditioned to do so. Fleas, despite their ability, restrict themselves when conditioned to do so. We must be willing to challenge our limits and examine our lives to find and challenge our comfort zones, question our own limitations, and embrace change to unlock our potential.

The horse and the flea are powerful metaphors for our own lives. They remind us that our beliefs can either restrict us or allow us to break through our perceived limits. We can search for these limiting beliefs and challenge the limitations we’ve placed on ourselves because of them. When we do, we’ll discover new possibilities and find a life full of potential and growth.