Dealing with Struggle

We usually don’t succeed in life despite struggle but because of it. Struggle builds character. It allows us to test our limits and build our strengths. There is a famous story about a man who found a cocoon and kept it. One day, a small opening appeared in the cocoon. The man sat and watched for several hours as the butterfly struggled to force its body through the tiny hole.

Then it seemed to stop, as if it could go no farther. The man, wanting to help, took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly easily emerged but something was wrong. Instead of emerging light and beautiful, the butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man kept expecting the wings to expand to be able to support the bloated body but they didn’t. Instead, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.

What the man did not understand was that the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening of the cocoon was designed to force fluid from its body into its wings. The struggle was necessary for the butterfly to take flight.

Excerpt from 'LifeManual' by Peter H. Thomas. www.lifemanual.com. Copyright 2005, 2006. All rights reserved.

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