The Secret Of The Clay Statue

I’ve just come off an SFM webinar with a number of others within the community, and I had to share with you an incredibly inspiring story and lesson from another SFM member and business owner called Vandy. So as much as I’d like to take credit for everything below, this all comes from her and not me 🙂

This is a true story too, you can find it on Wikipedia.

The Clay Statue

In 1955, at the Buddhist temple of Wat Traimit, stood a large, clay Buddha statue. The origins of the statue were largely unknown, as the true identity of the statue had been forgotten for over 200 years.

A new building was under construction at the temple, and workers had been tasked with transporting the huge statue to the new location.

But while they were transporting the statue, one of the ropes they were using snapped and the statue was damaged as it fell hard onto the stone floor.

Upon inspecting the damage, the workers discovered that they could see something shiny within the clay statue. So they started to break the clay away, and discovered that the entire statue was made from solid gold! All 5.5 tonnes of it in fact.

Turns out that past generations had coated the giant gold statue in clay hundreds of years ago, to prevent it being stolen by invaders.

But then after Burmese Invaders destroyed the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the statue was left among the ruins of the temple for a long time without attracting much attention. Everybody who knew that the statue itself was made of gold and not clay was killed, so it went unnoticed.

So the obvious lesson here, is that each and every one of us are pure gold within. We just have to dig through the clay that has been built up over the years to find the gold.

But here’s the real insight…

If success is “height”, then mastery & mindset are “depth”. We can’t achieve success, without first digging deep, mastering our craft, and developing our mindset.

Once we dig deep down and reach the gold within us, then success is inevitable. It’s too easy to look externally to try and find success. We think it’s something “out there” that we need to go and find. But it’s not. Success comes from within. We’ll never set the world on fire while we’re still made of clay, we have to get our hands dirty and start working on ourselves first.

Imagine trying to win the hundred meters at the Olympics without ever training. Imagine just showing up with no level of mastery, no resilient and focused mindset, and trying to win that race. Looking for that victory “out there” without ever focusing within ourselves first, is never going to work. But when it comes to careers, business and money… that’s exactly what so many of us do.

It’s the years of digging deep that allow us to inevitably reach the height of success.

Only when we uncover the “gold” within us, are we strong enough to then receive the success that comes afterwards.

Take the first step

If you want to learn a little more about how to take back some control of your life and dictate what you achieve, check out one of my other blog posts on setting and crushing seemingly impossible goals here.

And by the way, if you’re ready to start getting involved with the amazing community within SFM, and you’re ready to take the first step towards mastering and creating your own future, then you can Get Started with SFM here.

Let’s build a better future together, starting now. It’s time to take that first step, then the second will follow, then the third, and so on. But everything starts with that single, small, first step.

Look forward to seeing you within the community, and we’ll speak soon.

Dan