Once upon a time, a group of fleas was placed inside a glass jar. The jar had a lid, and every time the fleas tried to jump, they hit the lid with a soft but persistent thud. Again and again, they leaped—only to be stopped short by the unyielding barrier above them.

But there’s another, equally powerful image — not about a glass being half full or half empty, but about an empty cup.

There’s a story from many years ago that tells of an elementary school teacher whose name was Mrs. Thompson. As she stood in front of her fifth-grade class on the first day of school, she told her children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and told them that she loved them all the same.

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

A man’s favorite donkey falls into a deep precipice. He can’t pull it out no matter how hard he tries. He therefore decides to bury it alive.

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

THE 3 TYPES OF PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE: The Leaf people The Branch people The Root people