If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. - Unknown

In his book, the 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, John Maxwell tells the reason why a lion-tamer brings a stool inside the cage. It is to keep the lion distracted. The lion, seeing the four legs of the chair will get distracted, not knowing which one to focus on. A predicament that many of us face personally and in our business or profession.

As I was building this website and my other website www.mabutingbalita.net, I got distracted by a myriads of items. I began designing and coding only to find out that I can get somebody to make it better and faster. Then I worried about the content, marketing and sales and advertising, and then the online payment gateway.

The result? Nothing happened!

I spent a few weeks denying that I was in going nowhere until my wife asked, “So how is your project doing?” I could only mumble an unintelligible answer. I have lost focus.

Where did I go wrong? I got distracted and forgot all about the the objectives of each website: For www.magandangbalita.com, To bring the good news to you and for www.mabutingbalita.net, To share the Good News, To Live the Word. To focus on providing content instead of doing other things that can be done by others. So I got Eman, an open-source advocate to get the site up and running. Now, I know where I should concentrate and on which part I should delegate.

John Maxwell suggests the folowing guidelines on how to Focus time and energy.

Focus on 70% on Strengths: Effective Leaders who reach their potential spend more time focusing on what they do well than on what they do wrong. To be successful, focus on your strengths and develop them. That’s where you should pour your time, energy and resources.

Focus 25% on New Things: Growth equals change: If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. If you dedicate time to new things related to your area of strength, then you’ll grow as a leader. If you’re through growing, you’re through.

Focus 5% on Areas of Weakness: Nobody can entirely avoid working in areas of weakness. The key is to minimize it as much as possible, and leaders do it by delegating.

Maxwell further suggests:

Work on yourself. You are your greates asset or detriment.

Work at your priorities. You will have to fight for them.

Work in your strengths. You can rach your potential.

Work with your contemporaries. You can’t be effective alone.

You might be a lion, but you might be looking at four legs at a time.

by Noel Cruz, MD

Once in the Kingdom of Butterflies, the King was talking to his son, “In two weeks time, you’re no longer a prince for you will be crowned the new king. I am too old to be king now. Prepare yourself for the coronation.”

“Yes my father, I’d gladly accept the crown from you,” answered the prince.

One day, the prince was alone in his room when the first slave-butterfly entered. The butterfly brought with him a small glass filled with sweet nectar.

After tasting the nectar the prince shouted, “I don’t like the taste of your nectar! Where did that come from?”

With head bowed, the slave replied, “The nectar was taken from ten roses, your Highness.”

“Get out! Look for another source of nectar. When I become the king, I don’t want to be served such nectar. Get out! Out!”

The second slave-butterfly entered the room carrying a bottle of perfume.

The prince yelled again, “Don’t you dare go near me! I don’t like the smell of your perfume! Where did you get that?”

The slave replied, “Your highness, the perfume was taken from the oil of sampaguita flowers.”

“Get out! That smell is not fit for a king! Out! Out!”

The third slave-butterfly entered the room and with him were small containers of paint. The Prince opened his wings and the slave started putting colorful designs on them.

The Prince suddenly shouted, “Stop what you’re doing right now! Your colors are too pale, I want bright and shining colors. Get out! Get out!”

The Prince was left alone in his room. His anger remained even in his sleep.

When the Prince woke up the next day, the sun was bright and warm. His whole body was in pain. He was shocked when he saw his body. His wings and antennae were gone. He became a slow-moving creature with soft body and large eyes . . . he turned into a caterpillar!

The Prince shouted for help but no one seemed to hear. He also realized that he was in the middle of a field and not in his own big room. He cried the whole day thinking that he’s being punished for his cruelty.

Not far from where he was standing, the caterpillar saw a hundred soldier-butterflies. He crawled near their leader, the General, and introduced himself, “I know you won’t recognize me but I am the Prince in the form of caterpillar. What is the trouble about? Is a war going on?”

The General just smiled, “No. There’s no war. I am just preparing the soldiers for a major mission. They are on their way to a garden full of Santan and Gumamela flowers. These flowers store the sweetest nectar. The garden is a dangerous place as there are humans out there who catch butterflies for collection. In my experience, only twenty of the butterflies could come back to bring home the nectar. The rest will die.”

“But what will you do with the precious nectar?” asked the caterpillar.

The General answered, “We will offer the nectar to our prince, for he will be crowned the next king. He does not like nectar from roses.”

The caterpillar became sad of what he heard because he realized how difficult it was for the soldiers to gather nectar just to offer to him. He sadly walked away and continued on with his journey.

The next thing the caterpillar saw was a group of lady-butterflies gathered in front of tall bougainvillas. The flowers of bougainvillas were of different colors: red, orange, blue, pink, and purple. The lady-butterflies were picking the flowers. The stem of the bougainvillas was full of thorns. Most of the butterflies got hurt and some even died when pierced by the thorns.

The caterpillar asked, “Why bother gathering these flowers?”

One of the ladies answered, “We’re making colorful paints from the flowers. These will be used to color the wings of our Prince who will be crowned as king soon.”

“Forgive me, please forgive me” said the caterpillar. The butterflies did not understand why the caterpillar was so sorry.

The Prince then heard giggling laughter of butterflies so he crawled towards them. He saw very young butterflies playing around a tall ilang-ilang tree. They merrily flew up and down the tree two-by-two, three-by-three, and four-by-four.

They were gathering fragrant ilang-ilang flowers while playing games at the same time.

The caterpillar joined their merrymaking. “Your flowers are so fragrant, what are you going to do with them?”

One of the children answered, “We need lots of flowers to produce a small amount of oil from the ilang-ilang flowers. It will take a week to finish doing this.”

Another child said, “We’re making perfume for our prince for he will be crowned as king. He does not like the smell of sampaguita.”

They all continued playing around the tree. The caterpillar stayed and slept with the children.

The next day, when the Prince woke up, he found himself back in his room. He thought everything was just a dream. But when he saw his body, he was still a caterpillar.

The Queen of the Butterflies entered the Prince’s room. She stared at the eyes of the caterpillar, recognized the Prince and cried, “My son! My son! How did you turn into a caterpillar? Why? Why?”

The caterpillar did not say anything.

The news spread to the whole kingdom that the Prince to be crowned as king had turned into a caterpillar. Many leaders got mad for they wouldn’t allow a caterpillar to rule over them.

Then coronation day came. All leaders were present.

The King of the Butterflies said, “My son, it pains me to tell you that you can no longer be the king. Look at your condition, you are a caterpillar.”

The Prince sincerely replied, ”Don’t be sad, my father, nor even take pity on me. I am happy with what I am now. I’d rather be a caterpillar and experience the suffering and joy of the butterflies in our kingdom. I am happy mingling with ordinary butterflies.”

Immediately after the Prince uttered his words . . . blinding rays and flashes of light were seen . . . the wind blew stronger. Everyone saw how the caterpillar had turned from green to dark brown . . . his body became smaller . . . and cocoon was seen wrapping around his body.

The bright lights were gone and the air stood still. . . All eyes were fixed on the cocoon.

Slowly, from the cocoon came out small parts of a wing . . . something was coming out to everyone’s awe and wonder . . .

A beautiful butterfly who is the Prince emerged from the cocoon. He spread his wings and flew higher. The wings were so bright and colorful and fragrant smell spread around the place where they were gathered.

Somebody started, “Hail to the new King!” The rest of the kingdom shouted repeatedly, “Hail! Hail to our new King!”