would have thought that I would become a yogi and that my journey would teach me so much about myself and the benefits that yoga added to my life? In this instance, I certainly hatched!
The most important lesson of hatching is to embrace the process. Break out mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for each new level of growth, development, and maturity that you reach. Then go ahead and do it all over again.
Let’s revisit the image of the unhatched baby bird. In the baby bird’s beginning stage, it is equipped for formation inside of the egg. However, once the baby bird reaches full term, it hatches from that same egg into a season where it learns to function outside its shell. The bird continues to evolve, one level at a time. Its purpose includes learning how to fly; at another level, it will become impregnated; and in yet another level, it will reproduce. If it stays within the shell’s confines, it will probably become inert.
The same is true for you as one of God’s greatest creations. There are inherent stages of development and markers of growth that you progressively met as you matured. For example, as a newborn infant, crying was the only form of communication that you had to share your needs with your parents. But there was a point at which you evolved and learned how to communicate with single words, then sentences. You forged ahead from kindergarten through higher education, so there is no reason to stop progressing to the next level now!
Every season will bring you new stages of development, new personal assignments to fulfill, and new seeds to nurture. Unless you continuously hatch into your next season, you will risk going bad in the last environment you have outgrown. Why is there such a risk attached to staying the same? And what does it really mean to go bad?
With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, I can clearly answer that question with some of the feelings that started going bad in me.
•The longer I remained inside my shell, the more frustrated I became.
•The more I realized that I should be doing something different with my life, the more I realized I was conforming to the expectations of others.
•I found myself becoming insecure where I had once been confident.
•I started seeing behaviors in myself that showed me I was becoming the type of person I had always despised.
•The longer I stayed comfortable within my shell, the more uncomfortable I became. I was “going bad.”
It is easy to miss the potential of your now by staying still in the comfort of the present with your pains of the past or your fears about the future. If you were to stop and honestly assess yourself and your life today, are there any instances that do not feel right emotionally, mentally, spiritually or physically? Can you name what they are? Do you know where these feelings stem from? It could be just one strong, incessant issue or a multitude of contentions that you’ve hidden away in your shell.
Faith is the one essential element that you need to hatch. The answer is to find faith in yourself. Right now! Today! You do not have to be religious to have faith. The definition of spirituality, which is a “strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion,” need not apply when hatching. I am simply suggesting that you put your complete trust or confidence in something!
In the early 2000's, When I took the leap to join the staff at St. Philip’s, not only did I take a pay cut, I took the opportunity to take a chance. In the past I had raised money and resources for events, and I was even awarded for raising the most money for a Multiple Sclerosis Bike Ride while working a full-time job. But taking on a full-time development job, where I was responsible for raising $1.5 million a year, was indeed a leap and a true act of faith.
Your commitment to asking, seeking, and trusting the lead of your higher power will become the demonstration of your faith. You may not be a person of faith, so let me put it to you this way: when you have faith no matter what happens, you will not fail. Why? Because having faith means that you’ve still won. You trusted yourself enough to try, and, in that exercise, you learned something about who you are.
Hatching to flee from a redundant and mundane lifestyle is an innate desire. Deep down inside each of us is the overwhelming need to use our gifts, talents, and abilities to do something extraordinary. Just think—your actions may lead to personal profits or growth or add value to the world in which you live. A unique and full-circle sense of completeness may emerge when you use what is inside of you to uplift or help others who have not yet been able to hatch themselves.
Hatching with the hope of fulfillment is easier to understand than saying, “I broke through the ceiling” because I was unfulfilled in my previous environment, career, or life. Seeking fulfillment is a journey to reconcile your outer life with an inner understanding of how to reach your full potential. You should use your inner powers on purpose. It is like having a deep, internal itch that must be scratched! Fulfillment is experienced when you can look at your work and know that it mattered. It is encountered when you are able to observe the full and final process of what you strived for finally achieved.
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?, a book written by Pastor Rick Warren, became a popular banner, leading individuals to seek out their own purpose in a deep and meaningful way. Rick is often called “America’s most influential spiritual leader.” This best-selling book in the Religion and Spirituality category has helped millions of readers examine how to achieve a place in life that was inspired and live according to what was purposeful.
How do you find and follow the clues to find purpose? Listen to your inner voice that is urging you to spread out and grow. Move toward the ideas that motivate and inspire you. Take a step beyond your comfy, complacent space, and hatch into a place that requires more of you. Flourish into the next and best version of yourself, again and again.
You will find that your journey is constant and ever-evolving, moving into varying levels of self-encouragement, such as saying to yourself, I should do this. I can do this! You will learn how to confidently do what you were created to do and fulfill your purpose. Sounds exciting, does it not?
The flip side of fulfillment is that it is never just about you. When you begin to fulfill your purpose, it also becomes an answer to the need of another. Your new business or nonprofit idea will provide a solution to a problem that you were most driven by and passionate about. The way you are evolving as a student, leader, spouse, parent, and more will ultimately benefit the lives of those who you are connected to. When you examine yourself and conclude that you have used your skills and abilities unselfishly for the benefit of others, you will experience what it means to be fulfilled!
Who were you created to be? How will you hatch and begin your process of becoming? I personally have decided that I will not walk in the shadow of what I do best. I will not abandon who I am purposed to become. I invite you to join me on this journey by reviewing the following:
•Review your current role in life and ask yourself the question, Is this who I was created to be?
•Using your new, fresh perspective, write down three actions that you will take to begin your process of becoming.
Relax and relieve yourself of the pressure and anxiety of perfection or having arrived, and allow yourself to simply hatch and become. I may make it sound easy, and, trust me, it truly is. Honestly speaking, for most of my life, I made things way too hard for myself. I hindered my own ability to fully become because I was way too busy trying, and most times, pretending to be perfect. But sooner or later you will realize, as I did, that becoming is an inward journey. This process of self-discovery entails learning new insights about yourself that will eventually help you define who you want to be. Becoming is a process of self-development: working and taking the steps to transform yourself. Finally, to become is a process
