Someone once gave two eaglets (baby eagles) to the King. The eaglet breed was excellent, and the King had never seen such magnificent eaglets before. The king was overjoyed with the gift and decided to hire an experienced caretaker to look after them.
After a while, King noticed that both of them had grown quite large, and they now look even better than before. “I want to see their flight,” the King said to the man in charge of the eagles. You give them the signal to take to the skies. The man did the same. As soon as they saw the signal, both eagles began fluttering. However, where one eagle was touching the sky’s heights, the other flew for a few seconds before returning to the branch where it had been sitting. The same branch from which he began flying.
The king had an odd feeling after seeing this. He became intrigued by the reason for the eagles’ contrasting behaviour.
Both eagles were adorable to King, and he wished he could see the second eagle flying high in the sky as well. The next day, he announced to the entire state that whoever manages to fly this eagle higher will be rewarded handsomely. Following the announcement, a large number of intellectual and knowledgeable individuals arrived and attempted to use their knowledge to help the eagle fly high. However, no one was successful. Even after a couple of weeks, the eagle showed no signs of improvement. He used to fly for a few seconds, then land and sit down. The king, too, had lost hope and was on the verge of giving up.
Then something strange happened one day. The king noticed that both the eagles were flying high in the sky. He didn’t believe his eyes and immediately called for the caretaker.
“Yes, the second eagle is also flying high in the sky,” the caretaker informed the King. “One man has succeeded in making the second eagle fly high.”
The King directed the caretaker to bring the person who had accomplished this feat. The next day, he was brought before the king, who was eagerly waiting to give him the promised prize. During interactions, the king discovered that the man was a simple farmer.
“I simply cut the branch,” the farmer explained —” the branch where he was accustomed to sitting”.
“I am very pleased with you; just tell me how you did this which even the great scholars and highly qualified people could not do,” the king asked.
“Your highness, I am a simple farmer, I do not have the knowledge of scholars, I had simply cut down the branch on which the eagle had a habit of sitting.” He had no choice but to fly because there was no branch. And he did it very well.”
Moral of the Story
Just as the eagle didn’t realise he could fly so high and preferred to stay on the branch, we also have a tendency to undervalue ourselves and fail to recognise our true potential. In life, we become habituated to doing certain things. We keep doing what we are doing and we forget about our high flying capacity.
You and I, like an eagle, were not designed to sit on a branch and live a mediocre life. You were born to soar in life. There is more to life than settling for the ordinary, the comfort or the safe zones. It is only then that we’ll realize our true potential.