I’ve always loved lions; they’ve been my favourite animal as long as I can remember. They way that they hunt has always mesmerised me, so focused and so precise. The raw brutality that is execute or die. I’ve learned a lot from the behaviour of lions and below are some which I believe you could benefit from.
1. We are animals too
We often forget that we humans are animals. Within every single one of us is a fight or flight response which is going to be there until the day you die. In this digital world that we live in it becomes easy to forget and we often create our own ramifications of what a good and bad life is. We let a bad post or a failure in business decide that we’re no good. No matter how difficult things are giving up is never the solution. Lions never just sit back and let life take over, they fight until they can’t fight anymore. We’ve all got fight a lot of fight in us much more than we believe we do and in desperate times it’s important to remember this.
2. Never take an opportunity for granted
When lions hunt, they go straight for the neck. They don’t mess about, they don’t play with the food when they have an opportunity, they take full advantage of it. The reason why lions give 100% every single time is because they never know when the next opportunity they will have. They are always hungry, any time food is placed in front of them they have no choice but to go and kill it, if they don’t, not only will they starve, but their family will starve too. On top of that if they don’t have an opportunity then they go and create an opportunity; they don’t sit back and wait for something to come to them. Make sure that you’re not taking opportunities for granted, and if you don’t have any opportunities, go make some.
3. Work together
Unlike tigers, lions work together when they hunt and through this they accomplish much more. Tigers are stronger, smarter and better hunters than lions yet the biggest animal that tigers will ever hunt is an elephant calf whereas together lions have hunted and killed are fully grown elephants and giraffes. By working together lions can take down much larger prey as they all have the same focus. They are also almost twice as likely to be successful when they hunt in groups. When we surround ourselves with other people who have a similar goal to us then we have the ability to achieve much more.
4. Practice, practice, practice
You might have seen young lion cubs playing with each other, sneaking up on each other, pouncing on each other and it might look like harmless fun but what they’re really doing is learning how to kill. They spend their entire childhood watching hunts and then practising themselves and that’s how they become some of the most efficient hunters. Even though lions are born with claws and sharp teeth they still have to perfect their skill. I think this is a perfect example to show you how talent (being their teeth and claws) can take you far, but without working on your skill you’re not going to get very far.
5. Don’t focus on anything else other than your own meal
When lions hunt their full attention is required. You might have noticed that lions and other predators have both eyes at the front of their head whereas prey have eyes on the side of their head looking outwards. That’s because lions look forward and focus on what they want, whereas prey is always looking around to see what’s going on. If you want to be successful you’ve got to only focus on your own meal. If you’re spending time looking at other people, you’ll lose track of what your own target is, then it’s only a matter of time before it slips out of your own hands. Can you imagine a lion stopping halfway through a hunt to stop and look at another lion hunting? Or maybe stop and chase something else because they see another lion chasing something else? It’s unheard of! If you want to achieve your goals, then you’ve got to stop looking at other people and focus on your own goals.
6. New levels bring new devils.
It’s important that you understand that when you start taking thing more seriously and progress to higher levels your challenges are going to get harder too. Lions are such good hunters not because they can kill a lot or quickly but because even some animals which seem almost impossible to take down can be hunted and killed. Lions can take down zebras, antelopes and wildebeest by themselves; all of which are armed and dangerous. The meals that a lion needs don’t come easy, even though it’s king of the jungle it still has to earn it’s keep.
7. Don’t let failure get to your head
Did you know that only about 1 in 5 lion hunts are successful? Whenever we fail, we often overthink it and make a big deal about it. Lions are born to hunt, they’ve adapted over thousands and thousands of years to become killing machines, yet they still fail. Now, when I try something for the first time, I expect myself to be good at it and when I fail, I can sometimes get disheartened. However, knowing that an animal as well adapted as a lion fails much more than it succeeds truly puts into perspective how little failures truly mean. It’s more important to keep trying even when you do fail.
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