This week, a timeless story about fear, doubt, and what happens when you finally decide to rise.

Let's get into it. 👇

Once upon a time, a farmer found an eagle's egg on the ground after a storm knocked a nest out of a tree. He felt bad leaving it there, so he took it home and tucked it under his hen, who was already sitting on her own eggs.

When it hatched, the little eaglet looked around and saw chickens… so naturally, it thought it was a chicken. It scratched the dirt for food. It clucked. It stayed low. That was just life.

Sometimes it would look up and see enormous birds gliding through the sky, wings wide open. But it never once thought, that could be me.

The other chickens had already told it, "We stay on the ground. That's just how it is." And the eagle believed them.

It grew big and strong… powerful wings, sharp eyes and still spent its days pecking at the ground like the other chickens.

Then one day, a wise old man passed through the farm. He spotted the eagle and stopped cold.

"Why is that eagle acting like a chicken?" he asked the farmer.

The farmer just laughed. "It's always lived here. It doesn't know any different."

The wise man wasn't buying what the farmer said, so he walked up to the eagle and said softly, "You don't belong down here. You're meant for the sky."

He carried it up to the barn roof first, held it up toward the open sky and told it to go fly. The eagle glanced up for a second, felt the fear, and hopped straight back down to the chickens.

So the next day, he took it further up to a nearby hill. The eagle flapped its wings this time, but the doubt in its head was louder than the wind, and it still wouldn't leap.

On the third day, he went all the way. He carried the eagle to the top of the highest mountain in the region. The wind was wild up there. The clouds were below them.

He looked at the eagle and whispered, "You were born free… Now fly."

Something woke up inside the eagle. Like it suddenly remembered who it was. It felt the wind under its wings, took one big leap and flew… soaring way up into the sky where it always belonged.

The eagle didn't stay on the ground because it was weak. It stayed because some part of it whispered "what if you fail?"... and it listened.

That's all fear really is. A whisper. But when you hear it long enough, it starts to sound like the truth.

The eagle had the wings the whole time. The strength was always there.

But doubt and fear are sneaky like that. They don't take away your ability to fly, they just convince you that you never could.

Think about one area of your life right now where you've been holding yourself back.

A dream you've been quietly carrying. A goal you've been circling around but never quite starting. A version of yourself you keep saying "not yet" to.

Ask yourself honestly… Is it really impossible? Or does it just feel that way because you've been told it is for so long that you started believing it?

You already have the wings. The strength is already inside you. You just need someone to take you high enough that fear has nowhere left to hide.

And that someone is you.

That's all for this week. I hope this edition gave you something worth carrying into your week.

If something in today's edition moved you, made you think, or reminded you of something you needed to hear, hit reply and let me know. I read every single one.

And if this story reminded you of someone… share it with them. Some things are worth passing on.

See you next Sunday.

— Manifest Chronicles | The Mindset Behind Change