Consider This: Better to fly with the eagles than the buzzards
By Ken Hammock, The Joy FM
They love to soar high in the clouds, and they provide a very needed service in nature. Buzzards eat rotting corpses. They descend along highways when road kill presents another tasty meal.
Unlike the revered and stately eagle which also soars high and provides little service to nature, other than ridding us of smaller rodents and varmints, the buzzard is not a symbol of motivation or encouragement. No one ever says, “Fly like a buzzard.”
Rather, you hear, “Fly like an eagle.”
I may not know as much as I should about the difference between these two high soaring birds, but two things I do know.
1. Eagles are intentional in their search and capture of their next meal. Buzzards are opportunist looking for road kill, death by another predator, or simply by natural causes. Buzzards are not a bird of prey. Instead they are a bird of chance.
2. An eagle is methodical in the process of searching for food, perching from a strategic vantage point and scanning the ground looking for a victim. Only when the target is found will the majestic bird take flight and attack. Meanwhile, buzzards circle high above smelling for the cairn. Stench from dead corpses rise, so when buzzards catches the scent in the wafting air, though it may come from miles away, it’s eyes become fixed on the ground below.
South of Atlanta there is a tower site with a structure protruding nearly a quarter mile straight up. Long guide wires extend in three directions, from the top to the bottom, to hold the tower straight and in place.
I visit this tower site multiple times a year, and each time find a dead buzzard. I’ve lost count because there have been so many buzzards which have met their end. What caused their demise. After speaking with someone with the department of natural resources, their explanation spoke volumes about goal setting and the effort of attaining those goals.
As buzzards are circling, circling, circling high above, their eyesight adjusts to focus far away to the ground a thousand feet below them. In fact, their gaze becomes so focused on the ground they miss everything around them. When it soars in a wide open sky what danger is there to be aware of? Well, those huge tower guide wires are right there in plain view and the gangly bird smack right into them. A broken wing is the cause of the fall from a thousand feet or more which kills the buzzards.
See the correlation with goal setting? Don’t be like the buzzard. Focus on the ultimate end goal, but be aware of your surroundings. Don’t miss obstacles right in front of you especially the ones that aren’t supposed to be there. If you fail to chart the path like an eagle which focuses on its prey, then you become more like a buzzard circling, circling, circling and looking for success.
Be like the eagle – intentional and methodical.
Let me know if I can help.
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(Ken Hammock is a 30-year marketing veteran and is the Corporate Engagement Specialist for The JOY FM. You can reach him via email at [email protected])
