The Story of Two Wolves
“An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about this story lately; about the decisions we all face in life. Every single thing you do and every thought you have is a decision. Your alarm goes off early do you snooze or get up? Do you decide to go to the gym or prefer to watch a tv show? Are you going to cook a meal at home or eat out? Do you look in the mirror and think you look awesome or are your thoughts filled with criticism and judgement? Ultimately it is the culmination of all of these tiny decisions that lead up to where you are in your life and how you feel about yourself.
What stands out for me from this story is the idea that you need to take responsibility for your own actions. Life can be hard, there are struggles. Sometimes it may feel easier to blame someone/something else for your problems or your situation, but at the end of the day the only person that has control over you, is you. You can look at a situation and think “I can’t believe he treated me this way!” or “why does she always do that?!” but instead if you step back and think “how could I have handled the situation differently,” nine times out of ten I bet you’ll find something that you could have done to change the outcome.
Sure, things happen that are you of your control, but you get to choose how you respond to those things. It’s all a matter of making the decisions that lead you to live your best life.
Which wolf do you feed? Do you catch yourself wallowing in the pit of self-misery, feeding the negative, telling yourself that you’re not good enough? I know some days I struggle with that and I think that’s one of the hardest things we face in life; the chatter that goes on inside our own heads. The most impactful thing you can do is just take those first steps, no matter how small they are. Every day, when faced with which wolf you want to feed, you start to choose the actions that bring you into more alignment with who it is you want to be.
The more you feed it, the stronger it gets.
It doesn’t mean that everyday you’re 100% perfect. It means that you make the decision now to start feeding the “good wolf” and as it grows stronger you may find that you’re far more capable than you ever dreamed.