THE PARABLE OF TWO DOGS
I was recently reminded of this wonderful story.
An old Cherokee is 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 dogs. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other 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 you–and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which dog will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
And it is the same with our photography and what we want to do with it.
If we see ourselves as not being good enough, not ready enough, not young enough… all of the reasons we seek to encourage our self-beliefs to be right, then it is that dog we feed.
If we choose to feed the dog that builds our self-confidence, our self-awareness, and increases our ability to make more art, then that is the dog that will win.
When we look at the work that some of our peers have put in to become the professionals they are, we can clearly see which dog they fed. Which dog they groomed to be the alpha in their life.
I believe it is a choice, a choice we can make for ourselves by simply ‘flipping the script’ and looking for opportunity instead of validation for our negative viewpoints.
There are people doing what we want to do all over the world. And being successful at it. They have stories and examples. Choose to read them and model them.
There are people who have negative viewpoints, who have fed the wrong dogs all over the world as well. And their stories are read and believed far more than the ones who are successful.
It is true: negative articles have more readership than positive articles. It is in our nature, our DNA to be fearful. And that dog is always waiting to be fed.
Choose the other dog. Choose positivity.
What comes back to you will blow you away. Seriously.
Try it.