Mindset story: Can an eagle become a chicken?

Once upon a time, when an eagle was still very young and fragile, he tumbled from the safety of his nest. By a twist of fate, a humble chicken farmer discovered the tiny bird and, not knowing his true nature, took him into his care. The farmer raised the eagle in his chicken coop, and as the years passed, the great bird grew up alongside the chickens, adopting their ways pecking at the ground, strutting about, and living a life far different from what an eagle was meant to live. Years later, a knowledgeable naturalist arrived at the farm, having heard tales of an eagle that behaved like a chicken. With a deep understanding that an eagle is the majestic ruler of the skies, he was astonished to see the great bird mingling with chickens. The farmer explained, in his simple and matter-of-fact manner, that the bird was no longer an eagle but a chicken, trained by the life he had always known and convinced that he belonged among them. The naturalist, however, sensed that beneath those everyday actions lay the heart of an eagle. Believing that the bird’s true nature could not be erased by mere surroundings, he decided to reveal the eagle’s hidden potential. First, he gently lifted the eagle onto the fence that bordered the chicken coop and declared that the bird was indeed an eagle, urging him to stretch his wings and take flight. The eagle shifted slightly and glanced at the naturalist, then looked down toward the cozy familiarity of the coop where the other chickens pecked about. Unable to break free from the life he knew, he hopped off the fence and returned to his chicken-like ways. The farmer, watching the scene unfold, smiled and insisted that his charge was nothing more than a chicken.

The next day, the naturalist tried again. He carried the eagle up to the top of the farmhouse and spoke with quiet determination, reminding the bird that he belonged to the boundless sky and not to the earth below. Once more, the eagle listened and looked toward the farmhouse, but then he leaped from the naturalist’s arm and landed safely on the roof as if clinging to the world he was accustomed to. Though disappointed, the naturalist did not give up, convinced that the eagle’s spirit was too mighty to be tamed by a lifetime of conditioning. Finally, the naturalist proposed one last attempt. With the farmer’s reluctant consent, he took the eagle and the farmer far away from the familiar sights of the farm, until they reached the foot of a towering mountain. Here, removed from the chicken coop and its comforting routines, the vast open space and the radiant, beckoning sun filled the sky above. Standing in this new, awe-inspiring place, the naturalist held the eagle high and pointed toward the heavens. With a deep and steady voice, he reminded the eagle that he was born to soar in the sky, not to peck at the ground. At that moment, as the bright sun shone down and the wide expanse of freedom unfolded before him, the eagle looked upward. Slowly, he spread his mighty wings and, with a powerful screech that echoed like thunder, he leaped i