You read the title of this post and your’re like “say what?” Yup, be the buffalo. Let me explain, I promise you are going to love this analogy but before I do let me just share a little bit with you.

Most people are resistant to pain or anything that is uncomfortable. I think society has sort of conditioned us to avoid pain at almost all costs. We go to great lengths to avoid it or to buffer the pain so that we don’t have to feel it. What is the cost of avoiding it? What do we miss out by just allowing ourselves to feel that pain – whatever emotion it might be that we don’t want to feel? It doesn’t go anywhere, it still stays with us until we are willing to finally look at it.

I’ve done plenty of avoiding or procrastinating uncomfortable things in my life, instead choosing to stay in my “comfort zone,” so to speak, because it’s what I knew – even though I knew what I really wanted was on the other side of my comfort zone. I was compromising myself, my talents, my abilities that other people may have told me I had, but I need to be brutally honest with you – I was so caught up in comparing myself to others and feeling so low about myself as a person, or a leader that I deeply doubted if I even had what it took to reach some of the goals that I had set for myself. I didn’t have a strong foundation or sense in who I was. I think I knew it intellectually but I hadn’t adopted it in my heart or to the depths of my soul that I truly was a daughter of God.

I read this quote, and I don’t even know who said it, but it is so POWERFUL.
“When we skip over pain and go straight to positivity it is like floating on the surface of the ocean and looking for a treasure that only exists in the depths. You cannot reach dawn without walking through the night. A seed is planted in darkness before it grows toward the light.”

Wow, right?! That is so powerful and so true.

So, here’s the story about the buffalo:
In the Colorado Rockies, most storms come from the west and they roll to the east where the great Kansas Plains are. Apparently, buffaloes and cows respond very differently to these oncoming storms.

When cows see a storm approaching, they run in the opposite direction from it. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t the fastest creatures. As the storm catches up with them, the cows fail to realize they are actually now running with the storm, prolonging the amount of time they have to endure the inclement weather.

Oftentimes, humans are like the cows. We try to spend so much of our lives trying to avoid pain and challenges, and we gravitate towards the path of least resistance. But here’s a truth – what we resist persists! We end up being in the storm for a heck of a lot longer than we need to be.

Buffaloes, on the other hand, actually run directly toward a storm when they see it coming, so it passes over them quickly and their exposure is limited.

So, what’s the bottom line here?

1. What seemed like avoidance actually prolonged the pain.
2. What seemed like a sacrifice brought desired results more quickly.

When we procrastinate our challenges, they are amplified. When we procrastinate projects it prevents our progress. Why would we do that?

My friend, Rory Vaden, sums this up perfectly:
“Easy short term choices lead to difficult long term consequences, meanwhile difficult short-term choices lead to easy long-term consequences.” So, what do you choose?

Today, are you ready to be a buffalo and face your challenges head on?

I choose to be the BUFFALO. I’ll charge those challenges straight on and on the other side of that is even better than I imagined.

I’d love to offer you a free mini consultation to see if I am the perfect fit to help you reach you identify your goals and what might be keeping you from reaching them. I also help women find their purpose in the throes of and beyond motherhood. I have so much to offer and I’d love to help you.

Be the Buffalo.
Until next time,
Tammy