Can we learn a valuable lesson about encouragement from Frogs? I hope so.
This little piece of fiction I came across has a worthwhile lesson for us all.
The Frogs and the Tower
There once was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.
The race began.
Honestly, no-one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:
“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”
“They will NEVER make it to the top”.
“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one. Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell
“It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!”
More tiny frogs got tired and gave up.But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up!
At the end, everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!
THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?
It turned out…
That the winner was deaf.
About Paul Sibley
Andrew Gosden (now 18) has been missing from his Doncaster home since 14 September 2007. The search continues.
Elizabeth Jackson on 
This is brilliant, I love it! Having recently been subjected to being told “if you want to be good at x, you HAVE to be good at y”, and knowing I wasn’t any good at “y”, I felt a little downhearted (sorry to be so cryptic with x and y). However despite all that, I still feel I can and will be good at x, as I can compensate!
Glad you enjoyed it Mary. Cryptic is always good — it makes it easier to apply to your own situation; and I can certainly think of times when something similar has happened to me.
There’s always a way around a problem, or a way of compensating. It might be easier to be good at x if you’re also good at y, but if you’re not, there’s always another way.