Next time you find yourself struggling and feel like giving up, remember it may be nature’s way of helping you fly and soar to your true potential!

A man was sitting in a garden when he saw the incredible sight of a cocoon with a tiny opening through which a butterfly was trying to emerge. He watched for over an hour, captivated, as the butterfly struggled to come out of that tiny hole, bit by bit, flapping its wings, shaking itself, fighting, struggling to free its body. But even after an hour of frantic struggling, it seemed that the poor little insect was making no progress. So the man decided to help the poor butterfly. With gentle hands, he tore open the hole in the cocoon, just a bit wider to allow the butterfly to emerge easily. The butterfly came out. It had a shrivelled body and tiny wings. It looked weak and tender. The man eagerly waited for the butterfly’s wings to open up and expand, for it to fly away. But that did not happen. The man did not realize that in his attempt to help the butterfly, he had in fact harmed it. The struggle to break free from the cocoon is nature’s way of preparing the butterfly to learn to fly. As it fights to emerge from the restrictive cocoon, fluids from the body get pushed into the wings, making them stronger, making them larger, enabling them to fly. Without that struggle, the butterfly stays weak and unable to fly.

No struggle, no success. That’s as true for butterflies as it is for all of us.

As the caterpillar forms a cocoon—and then emerges from it as a butterfly—it holds out a valuable reminder for all of us. Don’t be dismissive of seemingly ordinary, average performers. There might just be a butterfly in them, waiting to emerge!