Finding your heart to serve is part of the greater process of self-discovery. One of the strongest barriers to true self-discovery is dealing with the expectations others have of us. This could be parents, peers, colleagues, coaches, etc. We should never ignore the perspectives of others - especially those we admire - but we should also not be confined by them. Consider this poem from Charles Osgood. Perhaps the eagle's story is similar to your own?
A man once found an eagle's egg and put it in the nest
of a barnyard hen. The eagle hatched and grew up with the
rest of the brood of chicks and thought he didn't look all the same.
He scratched the earth for worms and bugs and played the chickens' games.
The eagle clucked and cackled, he made a chicken's sound;
He thrashed his wings, but only flew some two feet off the ground.
That's high as chickens fly, the eagle has been told.
The year's passed and one day when the eagle was quite old
He saw something magnificent flying very high
and making great majestic circles up there in the sky,
He'd never seen the likes of it. "What's that?" he asked in awe,
While he watched in wonder at the grace and power he saw.
"Why that's an eagle," someone said, "He belongs up there, its clear.
Just as we, since we are chickens, belong earthbound down here."
The old eagle just accepted that, most everybody does.
And he lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.
Charles Osgood - The Osgood File - April 21, 1992
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