THE WOLF THAT YOU FEED

An Old Cherokee tale tells of a grandfather teaching life principles to his grandson. The wise old Cherokee said, “Son, on the inside of every person a battle is raging between two wolves. One wolf is evil. It is angry, jealous, unforgiving, proud and lazy. The other wolf is good. It is filled with love, kindness, humility and self-control.

“These two wolves are constantly fighting,” the grandfather said.

The little boy thought about it, and said, “Grandfather, which wolf is going to win?”

The grandfather smiled and said , whichever one you feed.”

Feeding unforgiveness, impatience, low self-esteem, or other negative traits will only make them stronger. For instance, maybe you constantly complain about your job or your life and going around putting the blame on other people without any effort of improving your life, you will always be complaining and limit yourself from growing (getting ahead in life). Ironically, when we complain, we feel a sense of release. It feels good to feed those negative thoughts .But the wolf we feed will always want more.

The next time you are tempted to complain, ask yourself, “Do I really want to keep feeding this negative habit?”, “Do I want to starve this complaining attitude and step higher?”.

If you start feeding peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, and self-control, you will see those character traits developing in your life. Make the better choice and instead of complaining about your life, do something about it. Make it your personal business, no one will make it better but you. Ask God to give you guidance and direct your steps.

A habit is an acquired, learned behavior that we do without even thinking about it. It is almost involuntary. We’ve done it so much it becomes practically second nature. If we have good habits, that may be fine. But sometimes our habits are keeping us from God’s best and we may not even realize it.

Many of the habits that we have developed stem from the culture in which we were raised. If you grew up in a home where people were disorganized, sloppy, or perpetually late, you may have formed some of those same negative habits. Or if you were raised around people who tended to be harsh, sarcastic, or rude, you may have picked up some of that same behavior. You may not even realize that such attitudes and behaviors are offensive, since that is all you’ve ever known.

On the other end of the spectrum, some people grow up around people with positive habits such as neatness, godliness, cleanliness, and order. Many people have established positive habits concerning diet and exercise. Other individuals have a habit of getting up at a particular time and going to bed at a time that will allow his or her body to rest and be refreshed. These are positive learned behavior patterns.

Your habits-whether good or bad- will greatly determine your future. One study says that 90 percent of our  everyday behavior is based on our habits. Let that sink in for a moment: From the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night, 90 percent of what we do is habitual behavior. That means how we treat people, how we spend our money, what we watch , what we listen to-90 percent of the time , we are on autopilot. We do what we have always done. It is no wonder that if you want to change your life, you must start by consciously changing your everyday habits. You cannot keep doing the same things you have been doing and expect to get different results.

To become a better you, take inventory of your habits. Do you have a tendency to be negative in your thoughts and conversations? Are you always late to work? Do you worry all the time? Do you overeat? Do you regularly succumb to addictions?

Understand, your habit may not be legally, ethically, or morally wrong. It can be a seemingly innocuous action or attitude, a little thing, but If you don’t do something about it, you can go for years wasting time and energy, being unproductive and unprofitable.

  

The good news is you can change. You can develop better habits. Most studies of habitual behavior indicate that a habit can be broken in six weeks; some studies tell us that you can break a habit in as little as twenty-one days. Think about that. If you will discipline yourself for a month or so, and be willing to suffer through the pain of change, you can rid yourself of a negative behavior, form a new healthy habit and rise to a new level of personal freedom.  

It's a fact: Successful people develop better habits. That's why even professional golfers practice hitting golf balls nearly every day. Some pros hit as many as five hundred to a thousand balls a day when they are not competing in tournaments. They work for hours to repeat their golf swing so they can do it without even without even thinking about it. Then, when they get in a tournament under intense pressure, their bodies perform the correct swing almost automatically. No wonders those golfers are successful. They have formed successful habits.

I would still encourage you to read these books to help you realize the true meaning of life and help you transform your life to a new level. Click on shop now to purchase your copy of the book(s).