It doesn’t matter what sport you play, what game you compete in, or what you do every day. Winning isn’t easy and it takes work. Whether on a court, in a pool, or in your own head, we all have those driving forces that work to keep us down. The only way to win is to not give up and don’t let the negative internal or external voices influence you.
There is an old story about an elderly Cherokee brave who tells his grandson about life.
“Son,” he says, “Within all of us there is a battle of two wolves. One is evil. He is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other 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 of you, and inside every other person, too,” explained the wise Cherokee elder.
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The grandfather simply replied, “The one you feed.”
That evil wolf is the one that screams you can’t do it. To him I say, bullshit, I can do it. That’s how you starve the evil wolf and feed the good wolf. We put a man on the moon, we put up a space station, we built vehicles that can circle the globe, we’ve built buildings that reach one half mile into the sky. There’s really nothing that can’t be done if you believe and commit.
It’s not easy, sometimes it’s scary, but winning and progressing isn’t easy, nobody said it would be. Easy doesn’t lead to growth, easy doesn’t lead to learning, easy doesn’t lead to winning. So, go ahead, tell yourself you can do it, jump out of your comfort zone and commit to doing something to make yourself better, and tell the internal and external voices that work to hold you back to get on board or get out. Your mind has no room for losers.
2020 is coming. What will you do today to make a better tomorrow? Nobody said it would be easy.
Photo by Ian Espinosa on Unsplash