The Unexpected Mentor: The Leadership Lesson I Learned in the Mountains

One time I met a wolf face to face.

For a moment I thought I was gonna die. 

No this wasn’t in a zoo, it was in the wild, I was all by myself, in the mountains of Colorado. 

I was on a solo hike and I met the thing about 25 yards away from me. 

In that moment, I very well thought that I could be surrounded by a pack of wolves. 

The paranoia kicked in hard. 

I started scanning the treelines around me, searching for movement. 

I felt every muscle in my body come alive and all of a sudden heard every crack and twig go off around me. 

The smell of fresh pine trees came to life and the breeze hit my face like a slap. 

I took the calculated risk and moved closer to the wolf to gain high ground on a small hill to get a surrounding view. 

I had no weapons, nothing to defend myself. 

The wolf stepped out of the woods and then sat on his haunches. 

Then he waited. 

“Great.” I thought, 

“he’s waiting for the pack to settle in and then I’m really screwed:” 

But the pack didn’t show. 

The wolf just sat there, and if i’m being honest with you, I ended up having a very different and intense experience with this animal.

We kept our distance. 

But there was a sort of dialogue happening. 

Animals communicate very much in energy. They communicate through rhythm, tone, posture, movement, vibration, speed, stability. 

They dance with you energetically. 

It’s like speaking but with your body.

Humans do this as well, we just aren’t always as aware of it. 

We often think the words do the whole thing, everyone is familiar with the idea of body language, or with the knowledge of it. 

But we often amputate entire systems within our own makeup because we become so dependent on one of them.

For example, we rely on speech. 

Or in a different light, we might rely on a certain trait and become a one trick pony. 

We all fall victim to it. 

I like working with animals because they are natural, they are primal, and they respond to what you ARE on a real level.

Kids do the same thing BTW. 

Kids don’t learn from your words, they learn from what you do.

If it’s infuriating that your kid is picking up the wrong things, then it means it’s time for you to change.

Oh boy. Is that a hard one. Kids bring the opportunity for the deepest healing within us.

But, I digress….

Alone on this mountaintop, 25 yards away from a beautiful white wolf, I sat in a back and forth energetic exchange. 

If I'm being completely honest with you, after a couple of minutes, I realized there were no other wolves, there was no pack, there was zero aggression in the animal, and I kind of settled in with it. 

It was a crazy experience. 

What was the nature of this back and forth?

Like I said, it was like a conversation without words. 

The energy from the animal itself was a very confident energy, and I believe in that time of my life, it was a feeling and characteristic that I needed.

I believe God sent this animal over as a messenger for me in that time. Wolves in that region were really uncommon and I know that it was a wolf, it was not a Coyote, there are plenty of those around.

I even doubted myself as I was walking back. “Man!” I thought.

“That must have been a coyote, there’s no way I just ran into a wolf.” 

Sure enough, not long after that, I run into some coyotes. 

“I’ll be damned! That was definitely a wolf!” 

That energy was definitely something I was seeking. I was seeking confidence in a way that wasn’t a lesson out of a book.

Not something to be read and intellectually understood, memorized, and filed away.

I needed that lesson in my cells. 

I needed it in my bones.

I’ll never forget the way that wolf walked back into the woods, the way it lifted it’s paws, nonchalantly turning it’s head, it could smell everything around, it could sense anything creeping, it wasn’t scared, it was alpha in the environment, second maybe only to a grizzly or a Mountain Lion, and even them, they all play very different roles within the ecosystem.

In it’s lane, in it’s role, with it’s pack. 

It was rock solid. And it knew it. 

On the contrary, at that time in my life, I felt more like a leaf in the breeze as opposed to a force to be reckoned with. 

Did I have some things going for me? 

Yea, sure. 

But energetically, it wasn’t matching up.

The biggest thing I took away from that experience was the confidence it walked with.

And I think to this day, if you find your role, and your strengths, and tune into your mission, and silence the noise - in this very loud distracted world - you too can tap into unshakable confidence.

But it only happens when we go deep within our own cellular systems, and tie that into a greater ecosystem. 

To be sure, it still requires work, and mastery, but as starting point, today there are many people who dont even feel solid in their own bodies. A sort of identity crisis. 

It seems pretty clear there’s a lot of that going on nowadays. 

Of course, this all ties back into god. Being anchored in God and knowing it. 

When we can be a confident servant, and utter that in the same breath, we have the ability to happily and confidently fulfill our missions here and contribute to the world. 

I hope this finds you in the right time and space and can help you along the way. 

Blessings! 

P.S. 

This is the work I do with my clientele. 

Business owners who are facing challenges growing. 

Whether it be structural challenges within the business, understanding product and the market, developing a marketing plan, or it’s becoming the person that needs to handle all of that. 

If this is you and it resonates, click the link here and be in touch.