What wolf are you feeding?

“Keep that sandbag on your back and stay in that squat!”, the coach yelled. How long will we have to stay here, I thought after a couple of hours on the grinder and as the sun beat down on us. My Courage Wolf then spoke to me. “As long as it takes”, she said. As long as it takes...

In last week’s newsletter, I spoke of my experience at SEALFIT. The founder and owner, former Commander of the U.S. Navy SEALs, Mark Divine, teaches us about two different kinds of wolves that we all have within us. The story goes that there are two wolves vying for attention in our hearts and minds.

As coach Divine explains,

The wolf of love and courage resides in the heart. The wolf of fear resides in the mind. The wolf that gets fed the most is the strongest and dominates our being. The wolf of fear is the most active and hungry, eager to trick us into thinking he is the most important wolf. The wolf of love and courage, on the other hand, is docile, loving and generous. He will take a back seat to the wolf of fear because he deplores conflict.

Both wolves are an integral part of us of course. We can’t kill the wolf of fear and hating him is the same as feeding him. We should strive to control the wolf of fear – to tame him by re-directing fear energy into assertiveness and discipline.

Meanwhile, we should strive to feed the wolf of love and courage. Feeding the wolf of love and courage makes us more kind, patient, tolerant, powerful and present. We will avoid conflict and be better leaders. We won’t hesitate to lean into the hard tasks; fear will cease being an influence in our lives. The nice thing is that by feeding the wolf of love and courage we will be simultaneously taming the wolf of fear. How can we feed the wolf of love and courage?

By taking care of teammates

By encouraging rather than judging

By showing compassion for yourself, and forgiving yourself for your personal disasters

By looking for and finding good in the world

Condition your mind to feed the wolf of love and courage daily. Pay attention to your mind and witness it feed the wolf of fear. Interdict, re-direct and maintain the positive courage state!

Wow! Good stuff, huh? This is gold folks, pure gold. Think about this. Re-read this. Print it. Keep it. Refer to it. This can take you from a life of blah to a life of awe. The choice is yours.