“Does a caterpillar miss its body when it becomes a butterfly or does it joyfully release it in order to experience transformation?

Although I know that change in life is inevitable and is always required in order to grow, I admit that I am still developing my ability to easily release the old in order to accept the new.

I also know that frustration is an emotional response to stress that can change can create.

To reduce the level of frustration when I find myself going through a period of change, I draw inspiration and courage from the caterpillar.

The caterpillar allows itself to transform from something that crawls along the ground with many legs into a beautiful butterfly whose domain is the sky.

What a dramatic, daring…and scary transformation!

It flows without frustration through its ‘seeding,’ ‘sprouting,’ and ‘blooming’ stages until its growth cycle is complete…and the chrysalis is a thing of the past.

When we understand and accept the organic nature of all creation, we can then plan for the seeding, sprouting, blooming & harvesting, and resting stages of all that comes into our lives.

We can count on the fact that our relationships with other people will go through this cycle.

We can also trust that the development and achievement of all of our goals – personal, as well as purely business -- will go through this cycle.

Too often, though, we forget to plan for each stage.

We are surprised when we get there…and can feel like a victim of out-of-control because we do not know how to manage the growth stage we are in.

We begin to doubt ourselves and lose our confidence.

We slooooooooow doooooooooown the process of growth…delaying our ability to move through the cycle as quickly as is possible.

The way to release the frustrations that can arise with change is by preparing in advance for how we will manage each stage of the cycle of growth.

Preparations allow us to feel in control and experience peace and confidence when we reach each stage…especially the ‘resting’ stage.

This is the stage when a goal has reached its culmination and now it is time to allow it to ‘rest’ and turn attention to other goals.

Having a list of new goals ready and available for the next ‘seeding’ stage makes it easier to embrace the ‘resting’ stage.