Do you want to fly like an eagle? Sure, everyone does. These are amazing birds. But here’s also how to live like one!
Use Eagle Eyes to Look Ahead
Eagles have powerful eyes. Their vision is estimated to be four to eight times stronger than a human’s. Incredibly, they’re said to be able to see a rabbit from two miles away! Their elite eyesight helps them to focus on their prey even while flying at high speeds. They also have exceptional talon-eye coordination!
A hunter’s greatest power over its prey is seeing it first. Because eagles see their prey first, they gain an immediate tactical advantage by being able to choose when and from which angle they approach their target.
What if you saw your life circumstances and goals as your prey? What if you anticipated the things that would happen as a result of your actions? That gives you the advantage of adjusting your approach. Things do happen to us without us knowing sometimes, but more often than not, the direction we take determines what we’ll receive.
To live with the sharp vision of an eagle is to look out into the next few years of your life. If you keep flying on your current path, where do you see yourself in three years? How could you change your approach angle to bring an even better future? This analysis isn’t difficult to do, but many people don’t take the few minutes it takes to do it. At the end of the article, you’ll find a simple exercise to determine your ideal approach.
Use Eagle Versatility to Be Flexible
Eagles’ diets are mostly fish, but they can eat a large variety of creatures as needed. Aside from eating numerous species of fish and birds, eagles will also eat rabbits, hares, ground squirrels, deer fawns, muskrats, harbor seals, prairie dogs, jackrabbits, turtles, snakes, and raccoons. When they can’t find fish, they’ll find something else.
Life requires flexibility in the same way. Once an opportunity is missed or taken away, most people know to look for another one. But to thrive, you mustn’t only look for the same opportunities, you need to learn to see new types of opportunities that you may not have considered before. Case in point: I’m an author now, but there was a time when I thought I had to get a job in Finance (my degree) to succeed. If I didn’t consider opportunities outside of finance, I imagine I’d be far worse off in my career than I am now.
The key to survival throughout history has always been adaptability. Those who adapt to their environment survive. For an eagle, it means eating the food that’s currently available. For you and me, it means pursuing some of the opportunities that are available right now rather than hoping for one that’s not available.
It’s a skill to be able to widen your gaze to see different types of opportunities. Amateurs get locked into one point of view and try to force it to work. Pros adapt themselves to their environment to conquer it.
Fly Like An Eagle
Flying is core to an eagle’s identity—they’re born to fly! Eagles begin flying at 10-12 weeks old. To learn they practice short flights to nearby trees and observe their parents fly. We can learn from this process.
An eagle that doesn’t fly is a sad eagle. A human who doesn’t live in a way that suits them is a sad human. Life is most satisfying when you use your natural abilities (that may be undiscovered!).
Observation and “trial runs” are a tremendous combo. We already know that to develop any skill, we must practice, but much can also be learned by simple observation of others who already have the skill. There’s a key choice we all have to make.
When you see someone who has something you don’t have, you can either be jealous or observe and learn. Jealousy prevents you from learning because it provokes you to think thoughts like, “they don’t deserve it” or “it’s not fair.” Instead of comparing yourself to others and thinking of life as a competition, you can see it as a game that we can all win. Eagles don’t look at their parents’ flying skills with jealousy, they look at them to learn to fly. If someone has something you want, observe them and learn from them, and you might learn to obtain that skill, position, or item yourself!
The Eagle Lifestyle
Eagles are impressive creatures. To live like an eagle…
- Look ahead in your life to anticipate what’s to come and change course if desired. This is obvious, but rarely practiced. To do it, just get out a piece of paper and write down where your current flight path will take you in three years, what life you’d like to have in three years, and what realistic changes you could make to bring you closer to the latter.
- Be versatile by looking for different types of opportunities. Don’t be so bull-headed about one particular path that you miss a better route in front of your face. Perseverance is crucial for success, but so is adaptability and awareness of your environment. Don’t be afraid to reposition yourself if an opportunity looks attractive to you.
- Observe and learn from the people around you. Look at the ones who have the skills, positions, and even objects you desire. Don’t be jealous of them, be intensely curious about them. How did they do it? What is it they’ve done that you haven’t? Observation is one of the most powerful ways to learn, and it’s a skill! The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.
Now, go out there and live like an eagle! Or would you rather live like a shark or perhaps a fox?
