Ten thousand people were laid off at my company. Including me.
I was devastated. My work life overlapped with my social life, and I wondered what I would do without my full schedule. The dinner meetings, business trips. I called up a friend for advice.
“Butterflies spend weeks in a cocoon not knowing what they’ll become,” he said. “Soon you’ll emerge with a brand-new life too. I promise. Just you wait.”
I’d come from an adrenaline-fueled work culture. I didn’t know how to wait. I dismissed my friend’s advice as well meaning but unhelpful—until my team at work presented me with a butterfly garden as a going away present. Maybe someone was trying to tell me something.
I set the green plastic box filled with caterpillars next to my computer at home. I watched the caterpillars make their cocoons. Meanwhile, I had lunch with some friends—and stayed for dessert. I spent an entire day with my grandchildren. I felt free—sort of like I’d sprouted wings.
When the first butterfly left the chrysalis to start a brand-new life out in the world, I celebrated my new life too.
Today I’m a life coach, helping people set financial goals for retirement, change careers or balance their work and personal lives. Change takes time, I tell them. But be patient. Learn to wait. Get a butterfly garden! It will change your life like it changed mine.
Download your FREE ebook, Rediscover the Power of Positive Thinking, with Norman Vincent Peale.
