In this short motivational monologue, the speaker reflects on the recent death of his father (September 11) and uses the butterfly/caterpillar transformation metaphor to frame personal and emotional transitions. He recounts several serendipitous encounters with butterflies—at a park, on a soccer field, and outside his apartment—interpreting each as symbolic evidence of ongoing transformation and peace. Emphasizing that waiting for change is insufficient, he urges listeners to actively look for signs of transformation (“the butterflies”) in everyday life, especially as autumn begins. The talk blends personal grief, metaphorical storytelling, and a call to proactive mindset, positioning the “moment of yes” as a conscious decision to seek and recognize positive change.
Chapters
Hey, good morning everyone. Here's your Moment of Yes for Monday, September 22nd. So, many of you know my dad passed, I guess, 11 days ago. Yeah, September 11th. And so that was on a Thursday. On Monday of that week, I was doing a virtual presentation with a company and we were talking about, interestingly enough, sort of transitions and people going through personal transitions and work transitions. And so how do we mentally approach transitions from a standpoint where it's not always so overwhelming and stressful? And so a lot of you know sort of the butterfly analogy, which I love so much, the caterpillar to butterfly going into its cocoon. And instead of doing gradual transformation, it does drastic transformation. It turns into goo. From the goo, Right. The butterfly is created. So therefore, the goo is sticky, messy. I'm sure it's uncomfortable, yet the goo is good. The goo is transformational. The goo is where the transformation happens. So I shared that with the group, and then Thursday was able to be with my dad when he transitioned and to whatever next phase that looks like. So more than anything, I was just sort of Excited for, um, you know, that transition for him. Um, I got back home on, on Saturday, uh, and then Sunday my wife and I went walk, took the dog to a park in the morning, and this woman came up to him and she goes, oh my gosh, look, there must have been a hatching, there's butterflies everywhere. And I was like, oh wow. So I took my phone out and like literally like we're just walking in this park and we're just surrounded by You know, dozens and dozens of butterflies. I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool. I was like, all right, yeah, butterfly transformation, you know, made me think of my dad, you know. Uh, that night, uh, St. Louis University had a soccer game, and, uh, during pregame warm-ups, I'm standing out on the field, the middle of the soccer field, not in a forest, not in a park, in the middle of the soccer field, and there's just one butterfly kind of hanging out at center field. And I was like, hey, butterfly transformation, there it is. And then the next day, we live in an apartment building in the city, and we live— we have a concrete courtyard where we are. There's no green in sight. And as I was sitting outside with Mako, just sitting there, sure enough, there's a butterfly hanging out, kind of going up to our window even. And I was like, all right. butterfly transformation. So we create our own stories, we create our own narratives. But what I love more than anything is that when we look for the butterflies, when we look for the evidence, when we look for the proof, we find it, we see it. When we look for that peace, when we look for that transformation, we see it, we find it. So the goal is not to wait for it, the goal is to look for it. And so as I woke up today, just kind of really just kind of like Watching some social media, really frustrated with stuff going on. I had to take a deep breath and go look for the butterflies. Look for the butterflies, they're out there. So this week, as we jump into the first week of autumn, on the first day of autumn, look for the butterflies. That's your moment of yes for today.
