How to embrace obstacles
/Has it ever happened to you that when you are facing an obstacle in life, the struggles and efforts needed to get past it seem unbearable? We just want it all to S.T.O.P., immediately. We can go into victim mode, “Why this? Why me? Why us?” Or we can go into evasion strategies, where we refuse to engage with the problem and circumstances and ignore them in hopes that they will go away on their own. If this happens to you sometimes, I have a wonderful story I came across while doing some research that might help you out:
Recently, I was the emcee for SF SEO Scholars 2015 graduation. Here are some pics (one with Henry Kravis providing some great pre-program words)
A boy once found a cocoon of a butterfly. He took it home so he could watch the butterfly come out. On the day that the butterfly began to emerge out of the cocoon, the boy sat and watched it for several hours as it struggled to force its body out. After a while, the butterfly seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared to have gotten as far as it could and seemed stuck.
The boy began to worry, and decided to help the butterfly. So he took a pair of scissors and snipped open the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily, but its body was swollen and it had small, shriveled, weak wings. The boy continued to watch, expecting that at any moment the wings would open up and the butterfly would begin to fly. It never happened! The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and weak wings.
What the boy didn’t understand was that the tight cocoon, and the efforts that the butterfly had to make in order to come out of it, were nature’s way of training the butterfly and strengthening its wings. The process forced the fluid from its body into its wings. By depriving the butterfly of struggle, the boy deprived the butterfly of health, freedom, and flight.
After I read this, I definitely had a renewed appreciation of what obstacles do for us. They prepares us for the next phase in life, making us stronger and better. When we avoid stepping into what at times we interpret as never-ending struggle, and avoid truly making the effort to emerge from our situation, we miss out on an opportunity to develop, evolve, and grow…How often has it occurred to us that we emerge stronger after a set back? Stronger wings and lighter body, ready to fly.
I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below. If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends and family!
Lots of Love,
Judith