Book 214 - A Year of Magical Learning (Part 2/2)

Reflection Title: Which Wolf Will You Feed?

Book – The Competitive Buddha: How to Up Your Game in Sports, Leadership, and Life by Jerry Lynch (Part 2 of 2)

Book Description:

The Competitive Buddha is about mastery, leadership, spirituality, and the Kobe Bryant Mamba Mentality. Discover how people from all parts of the world have brought together the Buddha and athletics for greater fun, enjoyment, and pleasure during their performances.

The Competitive Buddha teaches:

· Leadership Skills

· How to use Buddhism as an approach to competition

· How to master athletics and life

Reflection:

An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.

He said, "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, “A fight between two wolves.

The Dark 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 Light Wolf 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 grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".

When I hear this story, my mind immediately thinks of values as food. The dark wolf is feed by everyone else’s values, the light wolf can only be feed by your unique mix of values. Dark wolves will eat anything that they see, they aren’t particular at all. On the other hand, light wolves are very picky eaters and will turn up their noses at anything put in front of their face if their specific demands aren’t met.

Here is what sucks about this process, finding food for the dark wolves each day is literally effortless. From the moment you wake up and turn on the TV to watch the news, scroll through Facebook, browse cnn, espn, yahoo, read email, or whatever else you choose to do, the dark wolf will begin feasting like he is at an all you can eat Vegas buffet.

Facebook is a great example. If you need a quick meal for your dark wolf, open your timeline and let the feast begin as you scroll. You will see all kinds of values instantly thrown in your face. One person is sharing that travel is important, for another it is spending time at your kid’s baseball game, another is being in nature, another is expensive dinners and gourmet food, another it is fitness, another it is partying with friends, another is politics, another is social activism, another is education, another is love and romance, and the list goes on and on for as long as you choose to scroll.

Your dark wolf will be in heaven.

Sadly, for most of us we keep our dark wolf fat and happy each day filled with other people’s values while our light wolf is wasting away wondering when it will get its next meal. This poor light wolf exists off of some measly scraps off the table in the form of maybe a bedtime story for the kids or 10 minutes of reading as you go to bed.

We can do better! I think it is officially time we put that dark wolf needs a diet! It is time to feed your light wolf the well-balanced meal it craves of all the things that you uniquely love the most.

Figure out that unique mix of food required to meet its demands and then design your life around putting first things first to get that wolf a hearty meal as quickly as you can each day. I promise you will never be happier.

Question: Which wolf are you feeding each day?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? - An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Competitive Buddha: How to Up Your Game in Sports, Leadership, and Life by Jerry Lynch