How many times has this happened that when you want to try something new or set goals for yourself, someone shows up and discourages you from trying that new thing or tells you that those goals are too big and unachievable? There will always be people who will try to discourage us and shatter our self-confidence. What can we do to shield ourselves from such negativity?

There was once a frog that wanted to climb the tallest tree in the forest, but the other frogs in the forest would tell him that it’s impossible. The frog didn’t listen to them and began the climb anyway. The other frogs would stand at the bottom of the tree and tell him, “You have to stop! This is crazy! You’re going to get hurt!” But each time the frog looked at them, it would just climb a little higher. Eventually, the frog finally reached the top and all the frogs began to celebrate saying, “Wow, I can’t believe he did it!”

How could the frog climb all the way to the top of the tree, even though all the other frogs kept discouraging him? The frog was deaf. He couldn’t even hear the other frogs in the first place. Each time he would look down, he thought the other frogs were encouraging him to keep going!

If we want to try new things, improve our lives, or even the lives of other people that are around us, we have to become deaf to the negative comments of other people. We have to be strong, stay strong, and work hard to achieve what we want to achieve. In the past 70 years, people thought that humans couldn’t go to the moon, or climb Mt. Everest but both these events happened. When we have faith in our abilities and our strengths, no one can stop us.

It’s the weakness inside our minds that is susceptible to the arrows of negativity that people shoot at us. These arrows are aimed directly at our self-confidence. When we lose our self-confidence, we cannot achieve success. However, through meditation, we can develop our inner strength and create a shield against those arrows. Through meditation, we will realize what strengths and powers we truly hold, and then we can achieve anything we want to achieve. The negativity of others will simply bounce right off of us.