Personal, Metamorphic Change

https://ehhsdean.com/2016/02/01/beyond-the-syllabus/butterfly/

Since a child, I have always been amazed with the process of metamorphosis. I mean, you start with a caterpillar and end up with a butterfly. How an amazing change! I must say, as I have gong through the years and evaluated how much this process resembles life I have come to have a greeter appreciation for how nature can teach us. Along the way of my life I have noticed that change is unpreventable. You mentality, body, and surroundings are constantly changing. Change can be a scary, stressful, and daunting thing, but it can also yield wonderful, beautiful results. Looking into oneself, evaluating, and providing feedback can lead you to make and carry out goals for positive changes and become your best self.

I do not know how much a caterpillar even knows exactly what will happen in the metamorphic process, or even if it has the smallest idea that it will become something completely different. But, I know that from the beginning of his life as a crawling creature it takes time to prepare and ensure that it is ready for what is ahead for him. I am not sure who said this, but I love their quote: "If you don't stand for something, you fall for anything." The same principal stands for us when making change, if you don't have a something that you are working toward, then you will simply go with whatever is going on around you and fall for anything that comes along your path. Along the way there will be good things, but having a focus can lead to having and being not only good, but your best.

At times, I have wondered if the process to get from a caterpillar to a butterfly is painful, and if so, how painful? I don't have a complete idea, maybe some day I'll look it up and be amazed at scientific findings, but for now I imagine that there is some sort of pain in having a change in skeleton structure and whatever else goes inside a cocoon. In our lives, realistically looking into oneself and evaluating where you we are can be difficult. We can be our worst critics as we can harshly evaluate ourselves or be too soft because of fear. We can harshly look at every thing that we believe we are doing wrong and beat ourselves up. For example you can say, this week I (a) did not work out (b) have a healthy diet (c) did not finish everything I wanted to (d) was not promoted to the position I wanted (e) did not get my relationship to where I want it to be. But, we can also be very soft and make up excuses to cover up for why we did not achieve or get to where we want to be. We can say that we (a) have too much going on (b) time was limited, or  (c) something cam up unexpectedly. Excusing ourselves can limit our ability to progress, but finding a balance in evaluating can lead to better results. When evaluating yourself, seek to be honest. Honesty might make you hurt as you realize that you are not making an effort to get to where you want, or know you can be. Honesty can stretch you as you will have to take action in ways that are not within your comfort zone. Honesty can make you want to stop looking into yourself because you don't want to face reality. But, honesty can take you to really achieve your potential, and truly become a beautiful butterfly.

Once you have determined what you want to work on, set goals and take action. You will have created your chrysalis building experience and with continuous work and evaluation, you will be ready to break the chrysalis and go out into the world and achieve greater things, and explore more surroundings.

If you want ideas on what you can do to become who you can be, here is a video by Sheri L. Dew called "Are You the Woman I Think You Are?" from a talk she gave in 1997 in a general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a little bit older, but I hope you enjoy it.

I hope that as we continuously analyze our progress throughout our lives we can continue to grow and become our very best selves.


Please comment with any thoughts that you had while reading, or would like to share with others.