Lessons for a father - What's your pink elephant?

Do you think pink elephants exist?

To answer the question, whether with a yes or a no, we all would, for a fleeting second, believe in the existence of pink elephants; actually see a pink elephant using our imagination. That belief has to exist to give us an opportunity to believe in what is true - there are no pink elephants.

Now, what if the question was this: Do you think grey elephants exist?

I am pretty sure that the answer would be, without almost any intentional thought, a yes. Of course there are grey elephants. You might even tell me where to find one, i.e., the city zoo, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana or India.

Let us try and make the questions a little more taxing to our thinking ability.

Do you think you can be successful in your current pursuit?

Difficult question, right? For any of us to be able to answer the question, we have to imagine what being successful really looks like. After we put some intentional thought into it and use our imagination to see ourselves in that state, the question transforms into this: Do we think we can get "there"?

All the effort that we put in to become good parents, and all the effort to get better in our professional lives is based on our unwavering trust in our own abilities and the belief that we could do and be better. The goal of providing our son with the best parenting possible and our respective organizations with excellence, on a daily basis, forms a part of our "pink elephant" - the idea of believing in something that might not currently exist.

If we did not believe in our own version of the "pink elephant" - that we could, for example, eat better, exercise more, learn something new regularly, or that a tree could grow from a small seed or that breast cancer could be eliminated, the pursuit of our goal can become very difficult indeed.

So here's me believing in our son's long life, in happiness, in the cure for cancer in the not-so-distant future and in being able to work on something that can make this world better.

What is your pink elephant?

Image: Flickr (Vigilantetim)