Feeding Your Mind

Once upon a time, a grandfather was teaching his granddaughter about life.  And so he said, "A fight is going on inside of you.  It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves.  One is evil.  He is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, resentment, false pride, and ego.  The other wolf is good.  He is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and faith.”

"The same fight is going on inside of me," he said.  "And inside of every person too,” he told his granddaughter.  The granddaughter thought for a bit and asked the grandfather, "Which wolf will win, Grandpa?”  The grandfather said, "The one that you feed.  The one you feed, the one you nourish, the one you nurture.”  How true?

During any Life Skills Seminar I teach, I engage students with this question:  "Fill in the statement for me, please.  What comes after the words 'Garbage in?’"  And they often shout back, "Garbage out.”  "Not quite," I say, "Not true.  Garbage In, Garbage Stays,  Garbage Multiplies.”

When our minds soak up unhealthy or unproductive thoughts, unproductive ideas, it penetrates our subconscious.  And there it stays to influence our future thoughts and our future actions the way grease sticks to a sponge.  But to become astute, successful, significant, impactful, helpful, we need to fill our minds and we need to fill our hearts with thoughts and ideas that keep us on that path.

We must view our ideas and our lives as being in a constant state of improvement.  Then we lead lives of purpose and we help maintain the health of our community and the health of ourselves.  In doing so, we'll discover another intellectual truth:  Wisdom In, Wisdom Stays.

Garbage in, garbage stays.  Wisdom in, wisdom stays.  As the poet Mary Oliver once said:

Attention is the beginning of devotion.

This week, will you promised to make sure you feed yourself with wisdom?  With wisdom, that can get rid of all the garbage that we find around us and about us at times.  And that determines for us a commitment that says, "I am enough and I will make our world a better place.  And I will begin with me and with everyone in my circle of influence.”

You are born to be extraordinary.  Live life to the fullest.  And start this week by having an extraordinary day.