When the caterpillar develops into a butterfly, it needs to break out of its cocoon. If you saw a butterfly struggling to get out of it’s cocoon, what would you do? Would you get some scissors to cut a big hole in the cocoon so the butterfly could get out faster?
The struggle is an important process for the butterfly because this struggle pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Then, the butterfly emerges out of the cocoon and is eventually able to fly.
Let’s say you got the scissors and made a big hole in the cocoon. The butterfly would have come out with a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The problem is without the struggle of getting out of the cocoon, the butterfly’s wings won’t grow in size. A butterfly who doesn’t have to go through the struggle of breaking out of the cocoon never gets to fly. The swollen body won’t go away either.
There are going to be struggles that we all must undertake. However, each struggle will be ended when we emerge victorious out of our cocoons. However, if you’re relying on someone else to cut out a portion of your cocoon so you can get out quicker, you are preventing yourself from growing.
I know this is an older article but I just saw it tweeted. Good parable (I hope I’m using that word correctly – it’s early here). I’ll try to keep this story in mind as we continue to climb over the seeming barriers to growth that keep getting put in our way. One good example: a false review being posted of my brand new company on a high-ranking site before we had even done business (it was the old reputation management extortion scheme, but the posting persists). At the same time, stuff like that has only made me even more determined to push forward and prove worth and so on (where I might have otherwise been more lazy) and I suppose I have grown and picked up a lot of knowledge and tenacity through seemingly unfair ordeals like this. 🙂 Excellent article.
Thank you Jack. You did a wonderful job at using the word parable. In a world that is constantly getting newer, sometimes it is good to take a deep breathe and look back at some of the old stuff.
Great!
Awesome post. Really insightful!
Thanks. I’m glad you liked the article.
Excellent material and something to remember if we are to be successful. Muhammad Ali stated that he hated training but he wanted to live strong so he suffered through the pain of training.
That is an excellent point. As a track runner, there are some practices that I wish could end early. However, by finishing the practices, I am able to do better at meets.
Great post, Marc. Excellent point, and one we could all do well to remind ourselves of when we face adversity.