A frog looked up from the swamp he was born in, and noticed a mouse that was running as fast as it could across the prairie toward a neighboring forest. The frog had never traveled to the forest before, and always dreamed of seeing what the forest was like.
“Stop and wait for me!” The frog yelled to the mouse. “Teach me how to run as fast as you, so I can travel and see more of the world away from this swamp!”
The mouse stopped in its tracks, never having heard a frog speak before. The mouse turned around and walked to the frog sitting on the edge of the swamp.
“It’s easy to do.” The mouse said; excited to teach the frog a new way to experience life. “To run, just lean forward, put one foot ahead of the other, and use your momentum to run as fast as you can. When you get good at it, you can go as far as your heart and feet will take you.”
The frog looked strangely at the mouse as it tried to run for the first time, and fell on its face. The frog was embarrassed, so it tried to redeem itself by doing what it had always done and prepared to jump as far as it could.
The frog crouched on its powerful hind legs, and pushed off as hard as it could. The frog jumped higher than the mouse had ever thought possible and landed a few feet away.
“Great job!” Yelled the mouse, “Now just do it again, but keep going and you’ll learn how to run like me.”
But the frog shook its head before it even tried. All of the frog’s energy was gone after using it all in that one powerful jump. “I’m too tired, I can’t.” The frog said dejected.
The mouse stood up on its hind legs and clapped its hands, trying to motivate the frog: “You can, just try harder. The secret to life is that you can do anything if you practice at it every day. You can be the first frog in the entire world to be able to learn how to run!”
The mouse trotted around the frog on its four soft, furry paws. The mouse made running look so effortless and easy, and the frog felt even more inept. “Try again,” the mouse said. “Just get all of your feet moving at the same speed and time, and then let your momentum carry you to see speeds you’ve never felt before.”
The frog was embarrassed and prideful that it couldn’t learn to run right away, and started to make excuses for why it didn’t want to learn how to run in the first place.
“Running is a stupid way to travel anyway.” The frog said. “I’m happy just jumping. Besides, I’d have to re-learn everything I’ve been taught to be able to run. That sounds like more work than its worth.”
The mouse became frustrated and shouted back at the frog:
“But if you don’t learn how to run, you’ll be stuck in this swamp forever! You’ll never be able to run long distances, and see new lands, and experience the cultures in the rest of the world.”
The frog listened to the mouse, but the frog also saw all the hard work it would take to re-learn everything it was taught. It all seemed like so difficult to change everything that came natural to the frog. The frog decided to give up its dream of becoming the first frog who could run and travel simply because it was going to take more work than the frog was willing to give.
“Maybe I don’t want to learn how to run as badly as I thought.” The frog said. “It’s just too hard to change everything I know. It’s just easier to stay in this swamp for the rest of my life.”
The mouse suddenly became frustrated, because the mouse more than anything, hated watching other animals give up on their dreams.
The mouse knew how amazing traveling, exploring, and adventuring could be, and the mouse became sad that the frog had just given up its dream to experience this way of life.
The mouse looked anxiously down the trail, away from the swamp, and began to feel impatient, and a little angry. The mouse had a bigger purpose in its life than to sit on the edge of a swamp and hang out with animals who gave up too easily for the rest of its life.
“Then you can stay here forever,” The mouse said, “But I am going to move on and find my dreams without you.”
The mouse yelled back at the frog as it ran away from the swamp, “You missed out on a giant opportunity today. You could have become famous, and rich, as the first frog in the world who learned how to run, travel, and see the rest of the world. But instead you chose to give up because learning something new was too hard, and this loss of today’s opportunity is 100% your fault. You gave up even before you began, because learning a new skill was too challenging and uncomfortable. You will never know what you missed out on today simply because you were unwilling to open your mind and learn something new that could have changed your life.”
And at that, the mouse ran into the grasses of the prairie, and the frog never saw the mouse who was willing to teach the frog how to run again.
The frog ate the flies and mosquitoes in the swamp for the rest of its life, and eventually died without ever knowing that there was so much more to experience in life than the views that the frog believed was possible for it to see.
View life like the mouse in this story, and not the frog. That is the moral.
Learning new skills that are uncomfortable and challenging to us are the only way we can become the people we are supposed to become.
This is the only way to become the creatures that the world has never seen before. Evolving into a creature that we never thought we could become through hard work is the only way to discover real, true wealth.
Become the frog that wants to learn how to run like a mouse. Peace to you in your journey to find yourself, and your trail to wealth.
LEAVE A COMMENT TO INSPIRE SOMEONE READING THIS AFTER YOU. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF THE STORY? WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED IN YOUR OWN LIFE MEETING PEOPLE SIMILAR TO THE MOUSE AND THE FROG?
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Fun story. I’m glad the frog stayed in the swamp so he can take down some of these mosquitoes. ?
Part of the deal though is accepting who we are and how we’re wired and working with that. Not using it as an excuse, but moving forward in spite of it. The frog should have become a world famous hopper, but perhaps he was focused on trying to learn the wrong skill?
Thanks Holly! I agree, life is ultimately what we want to make out of it. It’s up to us to decide what we want. I personally love pushing myself to be unusual, and creative, and to try to do things that haven’t been done before. This is what makes me happy, and find meaning, purpose, and contentment. I personally enjoy writing stories that play around with philosophies on how to become an unusual, creative, and successful individual, as it’s what I feel I am personally wired to do.
Amanda and I drove up to our cabin late last night, and on the way, I was listening to her discuss some recent revelations she had. One interesting thing she recently thought was that not everyone is called to be a character like a Paul, King David, or Moses in the Bible. The world is filled with unknown characters too, like the rich man, or the poor man, or the demon possessed man. People who aren’t given names, but who are just as important in this story we called life. I thought that was a pretty cool thought as life is all about becoming the person you’re supposed to become.
I am personally just drawn to the people who want to make radical ideas, and take radical steps to execute plans to live out those ideas as that’s what I am personally motivated to do. Maybe the frog wasn’t called to be a world-famous hopper. I’m not sure. It is just a fiction story I felt inspired to write, so as long as it makes someone think, question, and react to finding the purpose in their life, I think it did it’s job. I try not to write stories to tell people the truth. I try to write stories where people can find their own truths within them. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Love Amanda’s revelation. I mean, really love it. There’s so much pressure in our culture to be Paul, but maybe your calling is the Inn Keeper. That’s more than ok. That’s the true path to fulfillment. Thanks for sharing.