The Two Wolves

There is this Cherokee Parable that seems to ring truer and truer as life goes on.  Here it is.

An old Cherokee chief was 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, self-doubt, and ego.

“The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. 

“This 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 chief simply replied, 

“The one you feed.”

I feel like there are endless applications for this.

There are plenty of choices in this life that feed these wolves. If you stack choice on choice for years what you get is a big wolf that is hungry. This can be a good wolf or a bad wolf. I think this has a lot to do with people repeatedly making good choices and poor choices in their lives.

If you apply this to fitness, you have a choice each day. You can choose to further your fitness, or increase the decline. Sometimes it just feels easier to stay the way that you are, or the way that you have been. And to be real honest it probably is easier, but the result is the growth of the first wolf, inferiority, self pity, and self doubt. You could just as well choose to further your fitness on this day, this wolf is the wolf of hope, humility, and faith. I believe there are many more rewards in this pursuit.

I personally believe in the good in people. I believe in the good in the world. A ‘bad’ person also has two wolves inside them. I believe they have made a string of bad decisions in their life. After awhile, I think anyone will just start believing they just are a certain way. Good decisions and bad decisions both pick up momentum. You can choose your own route. Just because someone has been making bad decisions doesn’t mean that the good wolf is not inside there somewhere, so don’t write them off. The same goes for good people, the bad wolf is still inside there. The decision is yours.

Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to others. Remember the two wolves. We all have our own battles. Try to be part of the good decisions in peoples lives. I believe we will all be much happier in this effort. And, don’t forget to work out tomorrow.