The Parrot Escaped!

When I get up in the morning and head for breakfast I always sit in the same chair.

It looks out onto large trees. The bird noise in the morning is pretty deafening. It’s funny how I can identify the birds from the songs now. Now and then I can see a red hawk as well as all the usual pigeons, crows, and other none exotic birds.

Today when I sat down I heard a screech that I have heard before but never heard here. When I was young my father kept parrots and other birds. They have a sound that is very piercing and very loud.

So when I heard the bird noise this morning I immediately thought of a parrot. Yet we don’t have parrots here, they don’t survive alone in the wild.

I grabbed my binoculars as I could see a large bird on the tall birch tree in front of my apartment. There it was a huge green parrot sitting at the top of the tree making a racket!

Here’s the thing.

It has clearly escaped captivity.

It now has to survive.

It can only survive if it adapts and adapts very fast!

It will have to do something different. It’ll have to eat something different. It’ll have to play wild until it becomes wild. Its life has gone from comfort to survival it just doesn’t know it yet. It's still overwhelmed by the fact it is free, flying around and maybe for the first time in years it’s able to stretch its wings and fly across opens space. There he goes, from the top of the tall silver birch to the large 40-meter conifer.

Last night he was probably in his safe little cage. Today he is flying truly free as a bird.

I can’t see him now.

It got me thinking, though.

There are times in business or in life when things happen very unexpectedly. If we fail to adapt our business or our life flow just withers and dies.

Recently with the UK leaving the EU I’ve seen and heard some really interesting comments. Comment son TV and comments on the streets.

A change arrived that no one really expected. That change cannot be unchanged. The truth now for anyone in business, anyone thinking about business or anyone that is now feeling free is this.

An adaptation or evolution or change has to take place in the way you do things. If it doesn’t take place there could be a negative effect.

Now some will sit and wait for something to happen.

Some will take advice and not work on the advice they are given.

Some will even try some new advice and never go beyond trying.

Yet the world is changing, the world has changed.

There is nothing we can do about things out of our control but are we looking at the things in our control?

Someone said to me the other day

Alan, you’ve really changed since we first met.

Now we first met over 30 years ago so how could I be the same?

Every cell in my body has been replaced and is replaced every 7-years. The only old part of me is my memories; the rest is renewed and refreshed. My whole being has gone through 7 full body changes since I birth.

That means, of course, I have changed.

That also means you have changed.

For example, you might have run marathons when you were 21-28 years old but that doesn’t mean you can run them later in life. You have to adapt always.

Like the green parrot on the tree today.

Now I am no prophet but I do know that if that parrot fails to adapt it will be dead pretty quickly.

Yet the parrot has a secondary problem to overcome and it is this.

Deep embedded, repeated routine that is harder to shift than the deepest stain on the whitest sheet.

It has never had a life outside a cage. It has never had to find its own food. It has never had the habit ingrained by its mother on what food to choose. It has never found its own shelter.

This really is a change or die scenario.

A very long time ago a group of parrots found freedom in Windsor England. It was said they would die very quickly die.

Surprisingly they didn’t. Not only did they survive they thrived to the point they are a nuisance in some areas.

How do they survive?

They changed their behaviour.

Now listen up close because I am going to say this once for you.

If you are struggling to the point that the changes you need are not coming if you fail to change your behaviour you will not survive.

You can only survive through change.

Sitting and thinking about it changes nothing.

Sitting and moaning about it changes nothing.

Walking around looking at your feet change changes nothing.

Running the same marketing campaigns that have already proven to fail for your business changes absolutely nothing.

No change means no change – it’s as simple and as uncomplicated as that.

I’ve been doing some cool stuff that is stripping back layers and getting into the core of what works.

Works in life and works in business. Some of the results have been pretty astonishing, to say the least.

We can talk about that if you get in touch.

I hope that parrot survives. I am a fan of the underdog, the rebel and the non-conformist. I always gave been. Maybe that is because most of the happiest success stories I see are those that ride against the wave of the norm.

I like the idea that the parrot feels free, he is happy and he has escaped the confines of a caged life.

Part of me wants to catch the parrot and save him.

Part of me wants to let him go and see if he works out his own future.

Life’s like that.

We work it out and are happy doing it.

We struggle and cry and wish our life were the life of someone else.

Either way now and then it’s possible we all need some help.

As always you know where I am.

Here’s to a life thriving, thriving and prospering.

Alan Forrest smith

Catch me here

Iconoclast Collective OrangeBeetle 2nd Floor 213 Ashley Road Hale Cheshire WA159TB (Above Thornley Groves Estate Agency)

Tele: 00 44 (0)161 928 838 (office hours) Text: 0044 (0) 7793069486 (text anytime any day) Email alan @ orangebeetle.com