"Until you spread your wings,
you have no idea how far you can fly."
- Napoleon
Are you an eagle who thinks it is a chicken?
While walking through the forest one day a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard, where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens.
One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked... why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in a barnyard with the chickens? The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as a chicken it was no longer an eagle. Still it has the heart of an eagle, replied the naturalist and can surely be taught to fly.
He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said... you belong to the shy and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly. The eagle however was confused. He did not know who he was and seeing the chickens eating their food he jumped down to be with them again. The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again... saying... you are an eagle, stretch forth your wings and fly. But again the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and the world and he jumped down once more for the chicken food.
Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged again... saying... you are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly. The eagle looked around backed towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings and with an triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.
It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.
We can see from this story that no matter how strongly the naturalist believed the eagle was an eagle, he continued to behave as a chicken until his own thinking and belief about himself changed.
You can learn to think differently about yourself.
Are you an eagle that has believed the lie that you are chicken?
If so, it is time to get out of the chickenyard and learn to fly.
You've got to spread your wings if you really want to fly.
Take risks
Try new things
Go places you haven't gone
Be willing to not know
Be OK with making mistakes
And you will go further then you could have dreamed possible.
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