The Butterfly Stages of Success

By Cassandra George Sturges

 
You must define what success means to you otherwise you won’t know when you have arrived. “If you don’t know where you are going—anywhere will take you there.”

Find your Talent or Gift / The egg

The butterfly develops in four stages through a process called metamorphosis. The first stage is the egg. This is a very easy stage for butterflies because they will develop into their DNA coding. During the egg stage, the butterfly does not have to worry about turning into a duck, swan, chicken, or crocodile. They know their purpose. They do not have to find their purpose through trial and error or discover their talent or gift. The butterfly egg knows why it came to earth. The egg stage for humans represent knowing what they want to do with their life not simply being alive.

You can get a job waiting on tables, cleaning toilets, or working in a nursing home if you desperately need money. You can work two fast food jobs and rent a single room if you simply want to make money. The reason you are reading this book is not because you want to make money; you are reading this book because you want to be rich. You want to feel whole, complete, and satisfied about who you are as a human being. You want your life to be filled with joy, happiness, and purpose.

I once worked as a computer coach for underprivileged children in a public housing community. My job was to help the children who lived in the housing projects with their homework and teach them basic computer skills. Most days no one would show up for tutoring except the children from Laos.

I had an opportunity to talk to their parents on several occasions who explained to me why they were living in the public housing community. The mother told me that there were 6 adults all living in a one bedroom apartment working at various fast food restaurants saving their money to open a nail salon. Within the 3 year period that I worked as a computer coach while attending college, I had the opportunity to see their dream come to fruition and visit their nail salon. A few years later they opened two more nail salons.

What I love about this story so much is that they figured out how to make money. But they desired to be rich doing something that they love. They used money to make their dream come true. They were also able to bring more family members here to America; some family members volunteered to work in the nail salons; while others were now able to afford to go to college due to the financial success of the nail salons. I saw this family prevail to make their dreams come true with my own two eyes. Sometimes I think that people who are born and raised in America forget the value of hard work and sacrifice for a bigger dream.

If you know what you want to do with your life you are ready for the next stage. I don’t think that humans were created to make money. Making money is not a goal. Making money is the outcome of a goal that pleases others. You can make money doing anything—prostituting, pimping, stripping, selling drugs, preaching, singing, dancing, fighting, killing, teaching, cooking; I could go on forever listing things that you could do to make money. You can make a lot of money or little money doing just about anything you can think of.

How do you I know if it’s something I really want to do?

You will know without a single doubt in your mind when you have found your purpose when no matter how stressful, difficult, or challenging the task is—you want to dig in deeper. If you study the lives of extraordinary people you will find that they did not give up on their dreams when times were tough.

The secret that you must understand about this stage is that you cannot fake true passion and desire. You can’t be good at a task that you detest; not because you are incapable—but because your sincere dislike for it will make it difficult for you to remain focused and give your all when your soul is not interested.

You know you are meant to do something when you don’t mind doing the dirty job that most people hate; you don’t mind doing the same exact thing over and over again until its perfected; you would do it for free—money is not what motivates you—you feel blissfully alive simply from the act of doing.

Just remember this: the people who excel and become wealthy in most endeavors whether they are prostituting or performing brain surgery-- it is because they love what they do. And when a person truly and sincerely from the depths of their soul and heart love what they do-- they cannot help but to be better at it than most people (especially the people who are just doing it for the money), and to earn a higher income.

Unless you take the time to figure out what type of egg you are; you may make a lot of money but you will never be rich in spirit. You will always feel like something is missing in your life even while sitting in your mansion with bazillions of dollars in the bank.

If you are struggling to figure out which direction to get started in to find your purpose, take the Myers Briggs, Nine Types of Intelligence, and Left or Right Brain Dominance personality tests. I have included links to free assessment tools that will help you discover your natural talents, interests, and inclinations.

http://briggsmyerstest.com/

http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

http://www.personalitytest.net/quizzes/quiz3/

The Caterpillar-The Feeding Stage Hone Your Craft / Learn Everything You Can

The butterfly egg turns into a caterpillar. The caterpillar has one goal and that goal is to eat, and eat, and eat, and eat, and eat to grow 100 times their size.  This stage is very similar for humans in the sense that once you know who you are and why you are here you must be of the business of honing your craft and growing more into who you are and why you are here on Earth.

If you have decided that you are a guitarist you must learn everything you can about guitars and practice playing every day until your fingers bleed. If you have decided that you are a writer, you should learn everything there is to know about writing. You should develop the habit of writing each and every day before you retire. Writers write; singers sing; dancers dance—whatever you have decided to do you must now learn and practice with diligence as if your life depends on it.

No matter what it is that you have discovered that you want to do with your life—if you are not willing to put the time and effort into eating as much knowledge and experience as your soul can endure; you will never savior the sweet, rich nectar of the fruition of having your dreams come true.

The irony of this stage of development is that most people will find that they have very little money. 

You may find yourself in a demanding college program broke and physically exhausted. You may find yourself wishing for sleep more than money due to studying for long hours fueled only by peanut butter sandwiches on stale moldy bread. However, if you are on the right path, you will also feel exhilarated and determined to succeed because the information that you are feeding your soul is so enlightening and enriching that you know that there is nowhere else in the world that you would rather be.

Until you find that something that you enjoy doing so much that you don’t care if your fingers are raw from playing the guitar; your feet ache so much from dancing that they almost feel nonexistent; or you don’t mind singing it over, and over, and over again until you get it right—you will make money—but you will never be rich.

The main difference between having money and being rich is that you always feel rich from the act of being and doing even when there is no money; but you never feel psychologically and spiritually rich if you only have money. Money alone rarely brings about prestige, awards, respect, honor or personal happiness in and of itself. To truly enjoy money you must also enjoy everything that you chose to eat in the caterpillar / feeding stage in order to acquire it.

The Pupa ~ Transition Stage

Believe in the Unseen/ The Lonely Stage ***

Once the caterpillar is finished eating it turns into a pupa which is also called a chrysalis; its entire body is covered in a cocoon. This stage lasts from weeks to years depending on the butterfly species. It appears that the pupa is resting on its laurels hanging under a branch.  What is most interesting about this stage is that appears that nothing is happening from the outside. But in actuality this is the stage of transition where all of the changes are happening internally. The butterfly is developing its beautiful wings.

The pupa or cocoon is the most difficult stage of development for humans because the transformation that needs to take place is no longer a product of our daily actions. This is the stage where God, if you will or the Universe if you prefer, or Nature or whatever you feel comfortable calling this Source of Power must metamorphize the caterpillar into a butterfly.

You may begin to wonder if God has forgotten about you because nothing appears to be happening from the outside. You have mailed out hundreds of resumes and no one has called yet for a job interview; you wrote the book only to receive rejection after rejection; you have put together your best songs on your CD but you still can’t get a record deal. Whatever your case may be-- the point is that you have done everything within your human power to manifest your dream but nothing appears to be happening.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is absolutely essential that you maintain a positive attitude because this is when the Universe is working the hardest to put all of the pieces together that are outside of your control.

I worked for 13 years as a social worker while completing my graduate studies. Once I completed my doctorate degree I couldn’t find a higher paying job outside of the social work field that I was trying desperately to get out of. I took my doctorate degree and one of my master’s degree off of my resume in order to get a social work supervisor position to stop from being evicted from my apartment.

Several friends commented that it was ridiculous for me to get a doctorate degree in a field that only required a master’s degree to be promoted to the highest position. I was fired from my job as a social work supervisor to literally find a full-time teaching job within two weeks doing something that I absolutely love to do—not to mention that I tripled my salary as a psychology instructor.

In my darkest hours of crying myself to sleep each night, I started to doubt whether or not my dreams would ever come true. But what I didn’t know is that the woman who would hire me was completing her doctorate degree and being elected department chair. Additionally, the school had just hired a new vice president and a new union president had just won. It was necessary for all three of these people to be in their positions at the time I was fired. They were all on my hiring committee in a very close selection. I know without a doubt in my heart that without the department chair, the union president, and the new vice president I would not have gotten the job I love. God was putting these pieces together behind the scene. The Universe was positioning all of the players in place to help me make the winning shot.

When you are in the cocoon stage remember that everything that is happening on the outside is bigger than you. The caterpillar is swaddled in the cocoon of nature’s love and it knows to stop searching and just be. It knows that it cannot turn itself into a butterfly.

This is the stage of being still in your spirit and believing with all of your heart and soul that all of your hard work will pay off. This is the stage where you will develop your inner strength and new psycho self-image before you emerge as a butterfly. You cannot become a butterfly if you still have a caterpillar mentality.

While in the cocoon stage of development you will find yourself isolated and alone from other people who have the same interests or talent as you do. You are no longer a caterpillar and not yet a butterfly. No one wants you to do back up singing for them because they do not want you to outshine them as this would have been appropriate in the caterpillar learning stage. But now you are ready for the big time and the Universe is putting together the pieces for the perfect role designed specifically for you and your talents. 

The secret to the cocoon stage is to tie a knot and hang on as tight as you can. You may find yourself going through some very turbulent times—accidents, death of loved ones, broken bones, break-ups and so forth. On the other hand, you will find yourself losing or gaining weight, changing your hairstyle, and or selecting a new style of clothes. Changes in your life circumstances will bring about a new self-image.  While your spirit is nestled in the dark cocoon remember to be still and patient and wait on Nature / God to bring about the light. The cocoon shell represents all of the things that will shed from your life in order for you to emerge as the beautiful butterfly.

This is the most vulnerable stage for the butterfly because this is the stage with the highest death rate. This is also the most delicate stage for humans. This is the stage where many people give up on their dreams because of their limited view of the darkness inside of the cocoon. Remember to be still and have faith that everything you have asked for has already been given to you. Remove any negative people from your life; remain extremely positive and be grateful for everything that is good in your life.

Please remember that no matter how traumatic these changes are they are designed to keep you very still so that the Universe is able to change the things that you cannot control.

Butterfly Wings: You have arrived to Your Dream

If all goes well, the caterpillar will emerge from the cocoon with big colorful wings. The wings will allow it to travel to places that its previous tiny caterpillar legs could never begin to imagine. You will know that the cocoon stage is over when you find yourself exposed to new people, places, and things that you never knew existed.

Beautiful, luxurious windows of opportunity will be open to you that you will now fly through with ease; where you will flutter through the garden of riches and abundance and suckle the nectar of your dreams. You will realize that the windows were always there-- it’s just that you were incapable seeing them in your previous stages of development. The caterpillar and the butterfly will never share the same view. 

One is not inferior to the other, it’s just that life experiences and development will determine how and where they travel.  You will find yourself mingling with new friends and acquaintances. You may yearn to spend time with old friends but this may be impossible because they do not yet have wings.