I am big fan of Norman Vincent Peale and his many books on positive thinking. In his book, "You Can If You Think You Can", he tells the familiar parable of the eagle who thought it was a chicken. As Norman put it, a young boy climbed high in the mountains near his father's chicken farm and found an eagle's nest. He took an egg out of the nest, brought it to their farm and put it with chicken eggs under a broody hen. The hen dutifully sat on the eggs until they hatched and out came a baby eaglet along with the baby chicks. The eaglet was brought up with the chicks and never thought itself to be anything else than a chicken. For a while, it was content and lived a normal chicken's life.
But as it grew, it felt some strange stirrings within. Every once in a while, the thought crossed it's mind that there was more to it than a chicken but it never did anything about it until one fateful day when a tremendous eagle flew over the farm yard. The eaglet felt an usual strange new strength in its wings. It suddenly became aware of an enormous heartbeat in its breast. As it watched the eagle soar, the strangest thought came, "I'm like that. A chicken yard is not for the likes of me. I want to soar high up in the sky and perch on mountain crags."
The eaglet had never really flown, but the power and instinct were within. Empowered by what was inside of it, it spreads its wings and was lifted high to the top of a low hill. Thrilled, it flew to a higher hilltop and finally on into the blue to the summit of a high mountain peak. It had discovered its great self.
Isn't it time for us to stop being chickens and be the eagles that is within us all? Don't make the mistake of pegging yourself at the level you're at right now. There's still so much power in you waiting to be unleashed. Refuse to accept that there are things you cannot accomplish because of all the reasons you've rehearsed to yourself. Dare to believe there is nothing you can't accomplish. When you believe, nothing is impossible. As Norman Vincent Peale so aptly put it, "Some of the greatest things in this world have been accomplished by men and women who never knew what they couldn't do. So not knowing, they just went right ahead and did it."
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