What Are You Hunting For?
Note: No animals were harmed in the publication of this post
A lion is agile enough hunt and eat field mice if it wanted to, but the energy to catch them is greater than the caloric content of the mouse. So, if a lion spent his whole day hunting and eating field mice, it would slowly starve to death.
A lion cannot live on field mice. Lions need antelopes. Antelopes are big. While they take more speed and strength to hunt, once successfully captured, they provide a huge feast for a lion and its pride.
A lion can live a long, happy life on a diet of antelope. It will die chasing mice.
Our world is filled with field mice: easy-to-achieve, short-term goals: obsessively emailing or checking our phones, mindless web-surfing, buying and maintaining stuff we don’t need. These tasks might even provide momentary satisfaction and pleasure, but they don’t give the nourishment necessary to make a meaningful life.
It’s the antelopes that make our lives great. Acts like cultivating and maintaining relationships, developing real skills and contributing to something greater than ourselves. These things take more time and effort to accomplish, but in the end, they are the things that constitute a well-lived life.
We have a finite amount of attention to give. Are we giving it to the field mice or antelopes?
Lion with Family Image via Shutterstock