Brian Johnson explores the internal battle between constructive and destructive impulses through the Cherokee two wolves story, Brian Tracy's work, and Alan Cohen's two lawyers metaphor. The practical takeaway: notice which side is winning in your own mind, then take one small action to feed the positive one.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In the last few Plus 1s we've been having fun mining some wisdom from Brian Tracy's great book no Excuses, as you may recall, but I'm deliberately reminding you to help you remember. Spaced Repetition meets recall for the learning 101 win folks. Lots of links already in this plus one. We started with a quick excursion to Someday Aisle you hanging out there. Then we reminded ourselves that we're teleological beings and that successful people think long term and that they also take action in alignment with those goals. Now today we're going to chat about the battle within. Then we're going to head back over to Seth Godin's wisdom on the Practice. Here's Brian Tracy's take on the eternal internal battle each of us faces all day, every day. He tells us, and I quote, every day and every minute of every day, there's a battle going on inside of you. Between doing what is right, hard and necessary, like the angel on one shoulder, or doing what is fun, easy, and of little or no value, like the devil on your other shoulder. Every minute of every day you must fight and win this battle with the expediency factor and resist the pull of the path of least resistance if you truly desire to become everything you are capable of becoming. Of course, we talk about this battle all the time. Why? Because winning it is essentially the ultimate game of life. Let's refresh our perspective on the subject. First, how about talking about some wolves? You've almost certainly heard this story many, many times, but it's worth repeating. Mark Devine wrote a whole book about it called Staring down the Wolf. Check out those notes. Marci Shimoff tells the story of the wolves really well in Happy for no Reason. Here's how she puts it, and I'm quoting Marcy. She says, one evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about the battle that goes on inside of people. He said, my son, the battle is between the two wolves that live inside us all. One is unhappiness. It is fear, worry, anger, jealousy, sorrow, self pity, resentment and inferiority. The other is happiness. It is joy, love, hope, serenity, kindness, generosity, truth and compassion. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, which wolf wins? The old Cherokee simply replied, the one you feed.
Bam.
In why your life sucks, which may win best title for a book ever. Alan Cohen has a great in the subtitle, Listen how to unsuck it. Check out the notes. Alan Cohen has a great way of describing the battle going on in your head. He tells us, I quote him, imagine two lawyers in a courtroom inside your head. One is arguing for your possibilities and you achieving your goals. The other is arguing for your limits and why you don't deserve what you want. Who will win? The lawyer whom you pay the most. And the way you pay these lawyers, however, is not with money. It is with your attention. Pay attention to what are you paying attention and putting your attention on? We've got wolves, we've got lawyers. And then there's Socrates, who is always a reliable source of wisdom on the subject. He tells us, I desire only to know the truth and to live as well as I can, and to the utmost of my power. I exhort all other people to do the same. I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life and greater than every other earthly conflict. End quote. Of course, I like to describe the angel on our shoulder as our Daimon, or inner soul. The other guy with the bad advice, that's our demon, which, as we've discussed, is simply the diminutive of Daimon. Today's +1. Who's winning your battle, and what's one little thing you can do to give the good guys a chance to win today? Day one. All in. Let's go, hero.
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