Does it mean I am wandering outside? Does it mean I am acting like one of the few irresponsible citizens moving out? DEFINATELY NOT!!! Well, I stay at home. I don’t venture out. I am a responsible citizen, or at least I think I am. Still, in this moment of crisis when we all are suffering from a huge amount of uncertainty, I am not willing to agree to lockdown.
That is because I am cocooning. I am not lockdown. I refuse to use this term. Well, what is a cocoon? A silky web spun around the caterpillar from which eventually a butterfly gets out. That is how I want to see these 21 days of my life. Be in the cocoon and while being safe in the cocoon web, just work on myself so that I am an enhanced person at the end of this cocooning.
This time is not easy. Lot has been rescheduled. Things were planned in a certain way which I am not sure now, how and when will that happen. But one thing is sure that these 21 days is a mind game. And hence I am cocooning, not lockdown. The easiest and fastest way to change this is to change the vocabulary. Spoken words impact our mindset a lot and once we change our mindset, we undoubtedly change our outcome. That’s how we do it. There are huge plans for all of us, but
because we stay small in mind, our outcomes are tiny.
Let me share a story I recently came across. It is about this young guy who goes fishing with his friend. On a beautiful Sunday morning, they are sitting on the bank of the river waiting for their catch. Now every time this young guy would catch a big fish, he would throw it back in the river.
Every time he managed to have a small fish, he would keep it safely in his basket. I am sure you must be surprised; well, so was his friend. He could not hold his curiosity and asked this young guy why he would throw away all those big fishes. And he answers, “You see, my frying pan is just 10 inch, how can I have a big fish?” Funny, isn’t it?? He is clearly missing out the bigger fishes due to his frying pan limitations.
Similarly, we are missing out on something bigger, something greater due to our own limitations. Law of nature quotes, “Before we see an increase on the outside, we must see the increase on the inside.” It is as simple as that.
Let’s understand – this increase in the inside comes from exposure. The day I feel, I am the coolest, wisest, richest, and brightest or any “est”, I just need to move on and look for a company where there are cooler, wiser, richer and brighter people than me. Since I am cocooning, I am definitely not meeting people. However, I am reading.
A young boy and his sibling were literally paid to read by their father for 30 minutes every single day. By the time he was 28, he had the 10th largest non-profit in the country(USA). By the time his brother graduated from college, he was a millionaire. By the time his sister was 27, she was running her own hospital. Leave aside money, he, his brother and his sister were way ahead of their peers, just because they had read so much by then. He was none other than John Maxwell.
Research says, 79% of unsuccessful people read for entertainment about other people’s lives, maybe gossip magazines. Whereas 94% of successful people read in order to grow and expand them. 88% of the successful people across the globe read for 30 minutes or more; every single day.
Well, I am not trying to give you a list of things to do while you cocoon, however, I do urge you, don’t lockdown yourself, cocooning is good, isn’t it!! Change your mindset, the outcome will invariably change.
Happy Cocooning!!
