Success, Self-Awareness, and Self-Discipline: A Lesson From the Lion and the Mouse

By Theresa Valade -

Most of us know the children’s story of the Lion and the Mouse. You know, the one where the lion chooses not to eat the mouse, the grateful mouse later chews a hunter’s net to set the lion free, and in the end both become BFF’s and live happily ever after?

Well, I recently heard a grown-up story about a lion and a mouse that does not, I’m afraid, have quite as happy of an ending. In this story, the lion decides to eat the mouse. In fact, he decides to eat lots and lots of mice, chasing them around the savannah. After all, they were always popping up everywhere – not like the occasional gazelle. Hunting gazelles took patience and planning. Why should something as regal as a lion waste time doing that? The lion was sure he was on to something!

But, sadly, a month later the lion had died. Why? Because although he was able to eat as many mice as he wanted – whenever he wanted – each time he chased a mouse, he used up more calories than the mouse could provide when eaten. As the weeks went by, the lion ate and ate but he was too busy chasing mice to notice that he was slowly starving to death.

How about you? In the wilderness of the work place, are you chasing mice or hunting gazelles?

As a business consultant and personal coach, I see so many hungry people, yearning for more recognition, job satisfaction, career advancement and success. They have the tools they need to survive – strength, agility, drive, and instincts – but they continue to starve. Why? Well, like the lion, they have not developed self-awareness and self-discipline.

1) Self-Awareness: The poor lion; he never saw it coming. How could he? He was so busy reacting to every rustle in the grass he couldn’t possibly pay attention to what was happening in his gut. Sound familiar? So often we continue to pour our energies into something when, all along, our gut tells us it isn’t working. To survive long-term, we have to take the time to stop reacting to everything outside and start listening to what is going on inside. Being successful in “busyness” will not make you successful in “business.”

2) Self-Discipline: We don’t like to hear this, but we can’t achieve success without self-discipline. Plain and simple. Like the lion, we want the quick fix that will lead to instant gratification. But, lasting success comes from patience and planning. To achieve our goals, we have to think through them, create action steps, outline priorities and then – here’s the kicker – actually follow through. Sure, we have to invest much more time and energy on the front end; but, when we do, we’ll be better prepared to pounce when the right opportunity leaps out in front of us.

Depending on the day, it can be a jungle out there. Developing your “self skills” by listening to your instincts and reining in your impulses will not only help you survive, it might one day help you be considered, like a lion, the king of it all.

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