Be willing to ask difficult questions and be open to change.

An army barracks had four soldiers guarding a  concrete slab in front of the barracks at all times.

Different commanders came and went but the tradition remained; the soldiers ran shifts guarding the slab.

After 80 years, a new inquisitive commander was posted to the barracks. Amongst the things he did was to ask why things were done the way they were. 

When he asked why soldiers were guarding the slab day and night, he was told, 

"We've always done it this way."

"It's our tradition. Our former commanders instructed us to do that." 

The commander was bent on finding out the reason for this practice. He went to the archives to look for answers and came across a document that had the explanation.

The document was very old. It had instructions written by one of the  retired commanders who had even passed away. 

The new commander learnt that over 80 years ago, the barracks wanted  to  build a platform/podium where events could be performed.

When the concrete slab was laid, stray animals  walked over it at night before the slab would  dry and make a mess of it.

The soldiers would fix it by the next morning but when evening came, the same thing would happen; so the commander ordered that four soldiers should guard the concrete slab for three weeks to allow it to dry.

The following week the commander was transferred to handle another assignment elsewhere and a new commander was brought in who met the routine and continued to enforce it without asking questions.

And since then, every other commander that came did the same.

Thus, eighty years later; soldiers continued  guarding the concrete  slab without knowing exactly why they were doing it.

An assignment that was ordinarily designed to  last for just three weeks turned to 80yrs of routine with hard labour; passed on successively to incoming ignorant commanders and soldiers who wouldn't ask questions.

My question to you is, are you diligently guarding and carrying on obsolete beliefs, attitudes and traditions that were relevant to a certain people or a certain time? Do you sometimes question the beliefs you hold so dear? 

Are you open to change? 

Growth is synonymous with change. It's impossible to say you're growing without changing. Without deviation from the norm, progress is impossible.

Be willing to ask difficult questions and be open to change.