Eric Zimmer

In the parable, there's a grandparent who's talking with their grandchild, and they say, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle.

One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love.

And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear.

And the grandchild stops and they think about it for a second and they look up at their grandparent and they say, well, which one wins?

And the grandparent says, the one you feed.

So I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do.

So one of the things that you are really good at is taking a rational position and

on things and really working with the best knowledge, having the most clear picture frame of reference.

And I'm curious how that works for you with telling yourself a positive story when you feel like perhaps

your fears are drawing on a lot of data that seems to make sense.

Yeah.

You know, the thing I often tell myself when it's getting into these stories is that we don't know the future, right?

And since we don't know the future, why not use an empowering story, which is easier to say than do some of the time when emotion runs really strong.

But it certainly makes more sense if I'm making it up anyway right now because I don't know, make it up in a way that is supportive of things turning out okay.

Yeah, I agree with that.

You mentioned your kids a second ago.

And one of the things that you wrote in the book, it was later in the book, but I loved it.

And you said, there's two effective questions I ask my kids to slow down and have them think.

One, do you want to put water or gasoline on this situation?

And two, is this behavior going to get you what you want?