DIRECTION OF ENERGY

Some time ago, when things were not so different, a Native American boy and his grandfather were walking in the late afternoon. The boy was eager to understand the actions of adults around him, and suddenly asked his grandfather “what do you think about the world situation?”.

The grandfather continued to walk, thinking silently to himself. After some time, he replied to the boy “I feel like wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and hatred; the other is full of love, forgiveness, and peace”. The boy enraptured by this response asked “but Grandfather, which one will win?”.

The old man’s face gently stretched into a smile as the sun’s rays shone onto his brow. Definitively, he said to his grandson “the one I feed”.

The origin of this story is unknown, but it speaks to the very nature of the struggle between motivation and energy. The grandfather in this story is describing to the boy that everyone has beasts within us. While not inherently malicious, the beasts within us can be overpowering if left unchecked. To channel the story, the wolf that will thrive and overcome is the wolf that gets fed. How we each focus our efforts dictates success in our personal lives and in business.

The difference between success and failure is measured by effort and motivation. Energy alone cannot help you succeed without direction; and simply knowing the path to travel down will not help if you lack the motivation to walk forward. Like the grandfather from the story, we all have a wolf of hatred and a wolf of love. Each one of us has our own bad habits to overcome; and in some, one wolf might represent self-pity while the other stands for positive energy, friendship, and love. The point is to know which is the wolf that’s going to help you get where you want to go, and only feed that one. If you put any energy in at all to a negative thought, it will manifest upon itself and eat you alive. Staying positive is hard work, but cultivating the thoughts and energy that have a positive impact is the surest path to success. Learn to direct your energy to achieve the goals you want.