Beyond The Butterfly Life Cycle

Dear Loving People,

First thing, you can trust that I am not into a biology or zoology lecture. The butterfly develop through a process called complete metamorphosis. This is a Greek word that means transformation or change in shape. There are four stages in the metamorphosis of butterflies: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The big question! How is this related to your quest for success? Keep reading…

Egg: Eggs are laid on plants by the adult female butterfly. These plants will then become the food for the hatching caterpillars. Females lay a lot of eggs at once so that at least some of them survive. Butterfly eggs can be very small.

What if the eggs are likened to your dreams, plans and purpose in life? Whatever it is your dreams, plans or purpose are, you first conceived and meditated them in your head before putting them on paper just like the internal biology of the butterfly that produced the eggs. Some of the times, you start with many ideas and zoom in to the ones that convince your internal being. They undergo further refinement by discussing them with those who matter in your life. A survival of the fittest kind of concept. The butterfly increasing the chances of some of the eggs surviving by laying many of them.

Caterpillar: The Feeding Stage

The next stage is the caterpillar whose job is to eat and eat and eat. As the caterpillar grows it splits its skin and sheds it about 4 or 5 times. Food eaten at this time is stored and used later as an adult. Caterpillars can grow 100 times their size during this stage.

Ok now, you convert your ideas into a physical reality in the form of a business, a book, a job, a marriage in fact whatever your profound goal is. Then, you start feeding it through concrete action such that it grows 100 times its size. The early stage could be capital intensive and demanding so, you start refining and reworking its concept just like the caterpillar splitting and shedding its skin over and over. Watch out, unprecedented growth and expansion could happen so fast and just as challenges that are certain to come (I must tell you) begin to sneak in too thus, launching the transition period.

Pupa: The Transition Stage

When the caterpillar is full grown and stops eating, it becomes a pupa. Depending on the species, the pupa may be suspended under a branch, hidden in leaves or buried underground. Some are protected inside a cocoon of silk. This stage can last from a few weeks and up to two years. It may look like nothing is going on but big changes are happening inside. Special cells that were present in the larva are now growing rapidly. They will become the legs, wings, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly. Many of the caterpillar cells will provide energy for these growing adult cells.

There comes the stage when your plans, dreams and purpose becomes pupa-like. Either growth has been unprecedented, too many challenges have cropped in or you become downright overburdened, embittered and demotivated by your own stereotypes, negativities from the people you counted on most or the world around you. You and may retreat into hibernation and you start falling as though you lost in the worlds dirt, clutter and mediocrity. Hibernating at such as stage is good only on grounds that you want to take stock, learn from your setbacks and correct course. Just like the butterfly, you could protect yourself inside a cocoon of close associates, quality friends, introspection, learning and strategizing. It may look like nothing is going on but big changes are happening inside. You are reformatting your ideas, concepts, strategies and growing rapidly than those around you might think. While they think you are finished, you rather prove them wrong with your reorganization produces breathtaking comeback like the internal processes of the pupa that become the legs, wings, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly.

Adult: The Reproductive Stage

The adult stage is what most people think of when they think of butterflies. They look very different from the caterpillar. The caterpillar has a few tiny eyes, stubby legs and very short antennae. The adults have long legs, long antennae, and compound eyes. They can also fly by using their large and colorful wings. The caterpillar's job was to eat. The adult's job is to mate and lay eggs. The adult butterflies get energy by feeding on nectar from flowers. The adult female can easily fly from place to place to find the right plant for its eggs.

When you blossom again, that’s what most people will see as success, those who laughed at you when you went through the storms start coming closer and some even consider you a model. With success, you suddenly appear different from the struggling you and the world forgets completely that just a while ago, you were so different (demotivated, introspective, sacrificing, restructuring) from the You now just like the caterpillar looking completely different form the butterfly. You now can fly places, go on vacations, donate to social courses, and of all you now radiate like the enticing colors of the adult butterfly.

Now you know that if the butterfly cannot leapfrog from caterpillar to butterfly without passing through the pupa stage, it should not be you hoping to register success with your ideas without meditating them, trying them out in the physical world, failing many times over, correcting course and persisting until you succeed. No sweat, no gain.