Basketball, the Crow and the Stonecutter

Posted by Ron Ball

Feb 27, 05

As I’ve said before, one of the things I like best about EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is that it’s easy to teach to people. Of course the basics of basketball are simple to teach also. Just shoot the ball through the hoop. That’s about it. And … to excel at basketball, or to be a great coach, takes years of practice and doing. It’s a continuous process. The same holds true for developing a mastery of EFT.

You might get lucky making a jump shot when you first start learning to play basketball. To consistently hit that shot or get results with EFT takes practice, patience and persistence. Newcomers to EFT sometimes get discouraged if they don’t get instant, dramatic results. Be gently persistent.

It’s like the story of The Crow and the Pitcher from Aesop’s Fables. A crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the crow put its beak into the mouth of the pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair.

Then a thought came to him. He took a pebble and dropped it into the pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher. Then he took another one and dropped that into the pitcher. At last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life. Little by little does the trick.

There’s also the quote about patience and persistence from Jacob Riis.

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”

Gary Craig, founder of EFT, talks about persistence in the EFT Manual (free download). He suggests doing three rounds of EFT each day for 30 days. Use the affirmation of “this feeling” or “this problem.” Your subconscious mind will begin to bring up necessary things that are out of your awareness. Trust the healing part of yourself. Persistence pays.