There’s only one creature the dares to peck at an eagle: the crow. A crow will land on an eagle’s back and sit there and peck at him, bothering him, until the eagle flies away. They do this for a lot of reasons: food, defending a territory, but often just to be a pest. The crow doesn’t always leave. Sometimes it stays and keeps pecking.
The eagle doesn’t fight back. He just does the one thing he’s good at: he flies higher.
The crow doesn’t give up; it stays there and keeps pecking. The eagle will fly higher.
The crow will start to peck at him even harder. The eagle will fly even higher.
The crow will bite it’s neck and become relentless. The eagle just flies higher.
It doesn’t take long, but there comes a point where the crow stops pecking. Not because it gives up or has a change of heart, but because it can no longer breathe.
The eagle flies so high that oxygen becomes sparse. And the crow simply falls away.
I think of this sometimes when I’m working on my books and goals I’ve set for myself. There are lots of crows out there, and you’ll see them all, if you start looking for them.
A crazy news day with news host firings. I’ll write my thousand words anyway.
Indictments, laptops, wars to be distracted with. I’ll write my thousand words anyway.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, posts, likes, reels. I’ll write my thousand words anyway.
And if I miss a day, if there’s something more important I need to do today, that’s okay. Because life happens… and I know I will write my thousand words tomorrow, anyway.
One thing I’ve learned about crows is, they’re always there. Pecking, biting, cawing, ready to distract you from becoming who you’re supposed to be. You can’t avoid them.
But you can outsmart them.
Because without oxygen, they simply fall away.
When you have a goal you’re not making progress on, don’t blame the goal. Don’t say it’s too hard. Don’t move the goalposts. Look around. Find the crows. They’re there.
I’m well into writing Blake Jordan #10 and making great progress. I know the next month will have many distractions. I plan to write my thousand words, anyway. -Ken