Feed It Or Starve It?
by Daryl Daughtry, Publisher
– Listen to article here
There is a timeless principle in life that goes like this… What you feed grows and what you starve dies.
Dr. McCoy of the television series Star Trek once said, “Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much? You get a whole bunch of hungry little tribbles.”
A large part of what you experience in life is the result of the thoughts and experiences you choose to feed and give energy to, and which ones you starve, or refuse to think about and give in to.
You feed things in your life (positive or negative) when you think about, look at, dwell on, justify, talk about, or read about them. Part of what you feed comes from: what you choose to watch, read, listen to, or talk about.
On the other hand, you starve things in your life (positive or negative) when you avoid thinking about, looking at, dwelling on, or talking about them.
When you feed one thing, you automatically starve its counterpart. For example, when you feed what’s positive and good, you automatically starve what’s negative and bad…and vice-versa. When you feed action, you starve fear and when you feed fear, you starve action. When you feed happiness, you starve sadness and when you feed sadness, you starve happiness… and so on.
The effects that you experience (either positive or negative) from what you feed are unavoidable. This means that you can’t neutralize the effects of feeding something negative by telling yourself ‘I’ll feed it, but I won’t let it bother me’ – because it will absolutely affect you, on some level.
It’s the age-old law of sowing and reaping. If you sow a seed, you reap a harvest from that seed. However, you can’t sow a watermelon seed, for example, and expect to receive an apple. No, you’ll get a watermelon. Won’t you? Similarly, you can’t sow neglect in a relationship and expect closeness. You can’t sow exposure to a horror movie and avoid fear. It doesn’t work that way.
To experience or grow more of something in your life, you have to feed your mind and involve yourself in things that promote that thing and starve the things that don’t won’t. You are in control of what you give your time, energy, thoughts, and actions to. It has little to do with what other people are doing, and a lot to do with what you are feeding yourself.
So, if you want more of something in your life, you must change what you watch, read, talk about, listen to, think about, or act upon in order to feed it. Likewise, if you want less of something in your life, you must change what you watch, read about, talk about, listen to, think about, or act upon to in order to starve it. It makes total sense and it’s always true.
I want to share the Tale of Two Wolves as an illustration…
One evening an elderly Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside of us all. One wolf is Evil. It’s anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is Good. It’s joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Grandfather, which wolf wins the battle?” The wise old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed wins.”
