What you feed grows, what you starve dies

One of my favorite tales is of an old Eskimo fisherman who owned two dogs.  One was a black dog, the other was white.  He trained these two dogs to fight on command and on Saturday’s he’d take his two dogs to the town square to fight.  The townspeople would gather around and he would always take bets as to which dog would win the fight.
Some Saturday’s the black dog would win, other weeks the white dog would win, but the fisherman always won!  Somehow, he seemed to always know which dog would win the fight.  Week after week this went on, with the fisherman taking the bets and always knowing which dog would win.  Finally, his friends asked him how he did it.

They asked, “Every week you know which dog will win.  How in the world do you always know?”

The old fisherman chuckled and said, “It’s pretty easy really.  You see, the week before, I feed one dog and starve the other.  The dog I feed is stronger so it wins the fight.”

The one that gets fed is the one that wins.

This ole tale reminds me of the internal battles that take place in our lives.  There’s that battle between having fear vs having faith.  There’s the battle between good and bad.  There’s the battle between having the courage to grow vs being content to stay the same.

There are internal battles spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.

The internal battles we have determine our character, the quality of our relationships, and the internal peace we have.  The battle on the inside determines what takes place on the outside.

You can predetermine the outcome of your internal battles.

What you feed wins and what you starve dies.  It’s that simple.  If you want more positive results in your life then you need to feed yourself with more positivity so that it wins over all the negativity that is so prevalent today.

Here are three easy steps to feeding the positive in your life:

1.  Be intentional about what you put into your mind.
What are you reading and listening to?  There are so many good books, blogs, articles and podcasts that will feed the things you want to grow in your life.

Here are my favorite podcasts that feed positivity:
Lewis Howes School of Greatness
Andy Stanly Leadership
Entrepreneur on Fire with John Lee Dumas
Every Day is Saturday
Elevation Church – Steven Furtick

Here are the current books on my reading list:
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court by Jay Bilas
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim S. Grover

2.  Get around the right people.
I’m always talking about being around the right kind of people.  Jim Rhon says, “You are the average of the 5 people you hang out with most.”  If this is true, what is your average?What you feed grows, what you starve dies Click To Tweet

Get around people that help you become what you are trying to be.

I have found one of the biggest inspirations for me is to be around positive people who are not afraid to take risks, and who are doing amazing things.  This helps me feed the positivity inside of me that I want and need.  Take a moment and list the most positive people in your life.  How can you be more intentional about how they influence you?

3.  Monitor your thoughts and self-talk.
What you think and say to yourself has more to do with the quality of your life than anything else.  Your internal dialogue is the most important conversation you will have today.  Make sure it’s positive and make sure the pictures you paint with your words are the pictures you want your life to look like.

Remember, what you feed grows and what you starve dies.  Grow just a little bit today by being intentional about what you are feeding in your life.   As you do this, you will begin to see yourself getting win after win in the areas of your life that matter most.

You’ve got what it takes!