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“THE COW”

BOOK REPORT

TANYA ROJAS PÉREZ

PROFESSOR: ARIEL VARGAS VÍNDAS

JUNE 3rd, 2016
The story of “La Vaca” is a story about how to get rid of those habits, excuses and beliefs that keep us bound to mediocrity. The book begins with a story of a family with eight members living in the state of poverty in a small village in the middle of a vacant lot. All they had was an old house about to collapse and a cow, which gave them poor but nutrient milk. That cow was all that separated them from the absolute misery.
One day the cow dies and the family was left with nothing, in total ruin. After that tragic moment, their luck began to change, and they themselves decided to change. First they cleared the space in their house and harvesting vegetables and then selling them to neighbors and even a market place. The family’s income started to increase and they started to dressed better, they fixed their house and they realized that their life could change, even with no cow around.
Through its nine chapters, the book gives us clear and concrete examples of people that were holding on to “cows”, which symbolize fears, negative thoughts and comfort zone, and how they came to realize that they could overcome these “cows” and achieve success. Each and every one of us have cows in our lives. We tow our beliefs that sometimes parents impose to us or we use excuses and justifications that keep us tied to a life of mediocrity. We have cows that do not let us seek better opportunities, grow and become better individuals.
The story of the cow is a story that teaches and explains how to free ourselves from habits, excuses and beliefs that sometimes can keep us tied to mediocrity as the real enemy is not failure as is often thought, but rather it is the conformism and mediocrity. Falls and failures generally are simply a part of the road that can lead to the achievement of our goals as we learn important lessons. If it were not for the failures we could not realize the habits we should or shouldn’t change.

The importance of this book is that it shows clear and concrete examples of characters that live situations with different outcomes that in the end did not depend on the decisions of others, but instead in their own decisions in life. It is also important because it uncovers the truth behind the excuses we give on a daily basis, which only help us justify our mediocrity even more. Regularly we use excuses as a form to avoid responsibility, criticism and confrontations. Once we become conscious of this fact, it is easier to overcome it.
The characters presented to us in the book, analyze how their lives were before and after understanding that being in a comfort zone is just another excuse because they were in a comfort zone. They hid their weaknesses under excuses of many kinds, for example: phrases such as "poor but honest" "God will provide", and use to live with them (the excuses) to the point of losing the opportunity of success in their lives. The biggest problem with the justifications is that after using them, we often end up accepting them as true. This book will surely help you open your mind to self-awareness.
The book states that failure is not the enemy of success as many people think, rather, mediocrity. When we let ourselves fail, this tends to bring great teachings, as this helps us have more experience and understanding of what we did wrong. Failing, can help us improve and renew our strategy within. We must be aware that the real enemy of success is mediocrity, and most importantly, to achieve great results in our daily life the first thing to do is to get rid of all the excuses that prevent us from using our true potential.
The Cow shows what can happen if we agree that our life is governed by the excuses and hostile and angry thoughts, fear and circumstances. When we let this happen, physical and mental deterioration is one of the first consequences. Another consequence is bad inter personal relationships and negative effect in human relationships.
The importance of the book is that it teaches us to understand to identify what is a cow and how can we change our mindset once we have identified it. Success is a personal responsibility. Of course it would be great to have the support and enthusiasm of the other family, friends, wife or husband but this does not happen regularly for some. Even though, we cannot let ourselves be victims of our own circumstances. The only person responsible for your success is oneself alone, with the determination and commitment to succeed.
The Cow book helps gives 5 simple steps that will help us get rid of the cows once and for all:
1- Identify your cow.
2- Determining how that cow is limiting your life.
3- Make a list of the negative effects that these cows have brought into your life.
4- Make a list of all the positive results that come as consequences of killing your cows.
5- Establish new patterns of behavior.

It is important to note that you should always plant new ideas, beliefs or positive behaviors. Otherwise your cows will appear again. The decision is simple, in life or you become the victim of adverse circumstances you may be facing or you succeed in spite of them. We must always remember that the enemy of success is not failure but conformism.We must accept the challenge of living a life free of cows a life where every dream is possible and the only limiting are those self-imposed.
In conclusion, success is the result of good decisions and good decisions are results of experience, because everything has led to a process of recognizing understand decide and especially do not give up your future does not have to be equal to You change your past can always learn and grow.