Will you do “cocoon work”?

Caterpillars everywhere dream of one thing: being able to fly. 

They eat as much as they can. They have the freedom to go anywhere they want on land. And they do their best to hide from their predators to have a long life. But in order to fly, they must do the hardest thing.

They must find a secluded spot away from predators, go into their cocoon and wait.

Before, these caterpillars were free. Now, inside of their cocoon, they are restricted and vulnerable. They must stay in their cocoon for months, sometimes years. Waiting. Developing. Strengthening their wings.

They must do, something that I call, cocoon work. 

Cocoon work is the act of cocooning yourself and doing the messy work that no one sees. It’s the shitty first draft of your speech that you worked on in secret. It’s the practice attempt at firing someone in your office at 11 in the night. It’s the morning journaling that you do in order to improve as a leader.

And it’s essential if you want to fly.

You don’t know exactly how the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. But in the end, you don’t really care. You respect butterflies because they did the hard work. You respect butterflies because they haven’t told you how they did it. And you respect them because they were once caterpillars who dared to fly.

The same goes for you. If you dream of becoming a butterfly, then you must go into your cocoon and do the work.

Every butterfly that you see flying around in nature, did their cocoon work

Will you?