Are you a buffalo or a cow?
Are you a buffalo or a cow?
As we head into the new year, I have a powerful metaphor for you. You may have heard this before, but you haven't heard my version. I urge you to watch this quick video and disregard the written version below. Save it for later if you are not in a space where you can watch it.
As we know, animals are extremely intuitive. They can sense when a storm is brewing. When cows sense the storm brewing they gather up and they run away from the storm. They don't want to get wet, they don't want to be miserable and cold so they run. One thing about cows is that they're not very fast. So despite their best efforts, the storm starts to catch up to them. They start feeling the rain drops and the drizzle and eventually they just can't run anymore. They're tired and beat down and guess what? They start to get absolutely poured on. Because while they were running, that storm built up stronger and now they have to wait it out. They have to be cold, wet and miserable. Kinda stupid, right?
Humans do the same thing a lot. We see our storms brewing whether is be financial, relationships, health, work, etc. We ignore the problem and we run away from it thinking that in due time it has to get better or you'll deal with it next week, next month, next year, when the kids grow up, when work slows down, insert reason here.
When a buffalo senses a storm brewing they wait for that storm to peak and then they run directly INTO the storm. They know they will be wet, cold and miserable, but it will be over a heck of a lot faster.
We don't get to decide which storms come our way. We do get to decide how we respond to those storms. As we head into the new year and you set goals for yourself, I urge you to consider the storms you have been dodging. You're already getting drizzled on so turn yourself around. You're gonna get poured on for a minute, but if you keep running you're gonna be so tired and run down.
You got this.