So I’m in the middle of my spring speaking season, and I love it. The students are awesome and each conference or campus brings something different to the table. I really privileged in my line of work that most people share with me what they appreciated about my day at work. Students often share what they are going to do differently on their campus or in their community, and the possibilities excite me.
Unfortunately, due to the brief nature of our interaction, I rarely hear from one of those students again, so I can never be quite sure if she was able to reach her goal. I like to think that she did.
Sadly, I know for most of us, we struggle to keep that fire going. We fall back into hold habits.
I’m guilty of this too. If I accomplished half of my goals I have after attending a personal development conference, I’d be sitting in a much different place than I do right now.
In recent weeks, I’ve become frustrated with my own status quo and have a real desire to change some things. I’m looking to create a bit more than consume and reawaken more of that drive I have inside. I’ve been looking over notes and clippings from the past, reflecting on some inspirational quotes, revisiting old goals, and considering those moments that provided me the most inspiration–where I wanted to go out and say how I was going to change the world.
One illustration popped out at me today. I was reflecting on a 2008 conference I attended in Illinois that featured Francis Chan as its closing speaker. Chan asked if we ever really saw butterflies crawling around in the dirt. He went on to say that caterpillars live their lives in the dirt, they struggle, they crawl, and then they go through this incredible metamorphosis, and emerge as beautiful butterflies able to take flight. Why would we not take flight?
The illustration has continued to resonate with me over the years. Why do we claim to experience a metamorphosis only to go back to old habits? Why would we continue to crawl in the dirt when we can take flight?
So take a moment right now and stop crawling in the dirt. There is one thing right now you know you can do differently.
Begin there.
Gradually add.
Let’s all work to get back to that place of flight we once desired. Our campuses and communities NEED us to soar.