Wolves and Your Wealth
Wolves and Wealth - What do they have in common and what can you learn from them?
I was sitting on the deck of a yacht off the Costa Rican coast, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean and a friend shared this story about a pack of wild wolves that emerged from a really long period of starvation and in that moment I knew I had to share it with you.
That’s what this video is all about.
Times had been tough.
There had been no rain.
The population of the prey they fed off had dropped down and they were really struggling to survive let alone thrive.
Some of their pack had died off.
Then the rains came.
With the rain came life giving vegetation, and with the new vegetation came the life giving elk.
Down in the great plains vast herds of elk and deer moved in, and with them all the food the wolves needed to thrive again.
The wolves headed down to the plain and quickly made their first kill.
They devoured the life giving flesh and the feeling of satiation was incredible.
The ability to feed again.
The ability to feel safe again.
And so they went off and killed again.
And again…
And again…
They hardly ate any of the carcass of a kill before they dashed off to the next on a crazed killing spree.
This is actually seen to happen repeatedly in the wild.
Sometimes when there's been a real long period of drought, or desperation, or hardship, of deprivation, wild animals can end up going on these crazed killing sprees.
They forget the purpose of their hunt.
The initial hunt and resultant feeding satiates some of the deep hunger, but the pleasure gets mis-interpreted in their brain.
The wolves brain misinterprets the deep satiation with the actual hunt.
It thinks the killing activity - rather than from the feeding their kill enabled - is the thing that brought them life.
Over time the pack will start stabilising.
Their nervous system will start slowing down, and they'll start to get back into right-relationship with nature and consumption.
“They remember that the hunt is a means to an end not the end itself.”
It is the flesh from the hunt that nourishes them and gives them life, not the hunt itself.
So what has this hungry wolf pack got to do with you and your financial well being?
Look at the pattern!
Many people will go through periods of financial drought.
Periods of starvation and deprivation.
Sometimes this deprivation is caused by external factors like tough economic times and sometimes we will do it to ourselves when we feel afraid financially.
Fearing we have left it too late, fearful that there might not be more, we can think …
“If I can just live off less and not spend any money then I'll be okay”
“If I can save more by depriving myself, then I’ll be okay.”
This was a place I knew well and I call it the anorexia phase of my financial journey.
This place is all about what we can't have, what we can't do and self deprivation.
This isn’t sustainable.
Life needs nourishment and life is meant to be lived.
Money is one of the inputs needed to nourish our life’s expression.
After extended periods of financial deprivation, when the “rains” come again and money is available to spend, like the wolves, we can trigger a misinterpretation of satiation in our brain.
When this happens people end up going on crazy spending sprees.
A big money binge.
Because our modern day hunt is to go shopping.
Our modern day hunt is to spend money and buy stuff but sadly most of the nourishment available is never received.
When we are out of right-relationship with our money and our own satiation, we can trigger crazed consumption cycles which never satisfy fully, because we don’t slow down enough to absorb the nourishment.
The point of your money is to support you in
living your juiciest, fullest life.
You choose to spend money to feed your life's expression, never just for the sake of spending money itself.
Many people get addicted to the act of spending, unconsciously believing the hunt is the thing that gives them the dopamine hit, the joy.
Most of us have this mis-wiring in some areas of our life.
- Do you buy books that you never read, clothes you don't wear, training programmes you never use?
- Maybe it's gadgets, or power tools, or photography equipment?
- Maybe it's food, or stationary, or grocery supplies?
What happens is with the purchase we get a little dopamine hit, just enough to feel a small level of satiation, but since there is no nourishment because we don’t actually use and benefit from the purchase, the feeling wears off really fast and in no time we need to be on the hunt again.
The whole point of spending money is to get value for the thing that you've exchanged the money for - not the process of buying.
I encourage you to look at where in your life you are currently like the starving wolf pack.
- Where are you triggered by the hunt (the purchase) rather than actually consuming and using what you're spending your money on?
- In which spend categories is this showing up in your life?
- Do you need to get back into right-relationship with your money and consumption?
Nobody wants to be a starving wolf.
The way we stop the starvation is to slow down and get more from the hunts we have already made.
Slow down and take stock of what has been going on in your money world - this is always the first step.
We first need to notice and acknowledge there is a dysfunctional pattern before we can change it.
Our brains have started misunderstanding the nourishment that we get from being able to consume the things that we spend money on, versus just the spending itself.
Once you’ve realised this, it gives your nervous system an opportunity to get in sync so that you can start getting value from the things you exchange your money for.
Just noticing and acknowledging the false nourishment cycle will transform your life.
This is how we become conscious about what we consume, what we spend, and how much value we get.
This then gives us the choice to get so much more value from these and we end up spending way less.
It's not about having more money,
it's about having more of what money can give us.
A wealthy, juicy life is about feeling filled up. Not bloated.
It's feeling nourished, not only by food, but by our environment, our relationships and our experiences so we live fully expressed lives.
Remember the purpose of the hunt (the spend) is to nourish us.
Here are some questions to ponder
- In what area of your spend, either in the past or now, have you been like a hungry wolf pack.
- In what area of your life have you spent money in order to try fill yourself up and feel good, but you don’t get the full value from the stuff you spend the money on?
Remember, money is meant to serve you, it is meant to support you in living your greatest, juiciest, wealthiest life.
Keep taking those baby steps, keep learning, and get on living your great, rich, juicy life.
Big love
