Living Lion Among the Sheep

There was once a farmer who lived in the village and also was a harder of sheep. One day, he took his sheep out to pasture, and while they were grazing, he suddenly heard a strange noise coming from a patch of grass, which first sounded like a kitten. Driven by his interest, the shepherd went to perceive what was the wellspring of this relentless sound, and amazingly, he found a lonely lion cub fledgling, clearly isolated from his family. After going back and forth with himself, the shepherd concluded that, in his best judgment, and for the security and endurance of the cub lion, he would take him to his farmhouse and care for him.

Throughout the following eight months, the shepherd took good care of this cub with milk and kept him warm, sheltered and secure in the defensive limits of the farmhouse. After the fledgling had developed, he would take him out day by day with the sheep to brush. The lion grew with the sheep and turned into one of them. They acknowledged him as one of their own, and he acted like one of them. Following fifteen months had passed, the little cub had become an adolescent lion, yet he acted, sounded and reacted simply like one of the sheep. Generally, the lion had become a sheep by affiliation. He had lost himself and became just like them.

One hot day, after three years, the shepherd sat on a stone, taking shelter in the slight shade of a leafless tree. The lion who thought he was a sheep tailed them into the water to drink. Out of nowhere, directly over the waterway, there showed up a beast that the lion cub had never observed. The sheep froze and, as though under the spell of some endurance impulse, jumped out of the water and ran toward the course of the farm They never halted until they were all securely crouched behind the fence of the pen. Peculiarly, the lion cub, who was presently a adult lion, was additionally clustered with them, stricken with dread.

While the herd mixed for the security of the homestead, the beast made a sound that appeared to shake the backwoods. At the point when he lifted his head over the tall grass, the shepherd could see that he held in his blood-soaked mouth the inert body of a sheep from the group. The man realized that danger had come back to the forest.

Seven days went moving along without any more occurrence, and afterward, while the grazed, the youthful lion went down to the stream to drink. As he twisted around the water, he unexpectedly terrified and ran fiercely toward the farmhouse for security. The sheep didn't run and asked why he had, while the lion asked why the sheep had not run since he had seen the beast once more. Sooner or later, the youthful lion went gradually back to the group and afterward to the water to drink once more. Again, he saw the beast and was in shock. It was his own appearance in the water.

While he attempted to comprehend what was he seeing, abruptly, the beast showed up out of the wilderness once more. The group ran with very quick speed toward the farmhouse, yet before the youthful lion could move, the beast stepped in the water toward him and made that stunning sound that filled the backwoods. For a second, the youthful lion felt that his life was going to end. He understood that he saw one beast, yet two; one in the water and one preceding him.

As dread held the youthful lion, he chose to attempt to copy the beast and make a similar sound. In any case, the main clamor that originated from his vast jaws was the sound of a sheep. The beast reacted with a significantly stronger burst that appeared to state, " Attempt it once more." After seven or eight try, the youthful lion abruptly heard himself make a similar sound as the beast . He additionally felt strings in his body and the voice that he had never known. Maybe he was encountering a complete change in his mind, body and soul.

Unexpectedly, there remained in the waterway of life two beasts snarling at and to one another. At that point the shepherd saw something he could always remember. As the brutal sounds filled the woods for a significant distance around, the huge beast stopped, walked out on the youthful lion, and headed toward the backwoods. At that point he stopped and took a long look at the youthful lion once again and stopped, as though to state, ' Are you coming?" The youthful lion comprehended what that motion implied and out of nowhere understood his day of his choice has shown up; the day he would need to pick wether to keep on living as a sheep or to be the self he had quite recently found and was in nature. He realized that, to turn into his actual self, he would need to surrender the sheltered, secure, unsurprising and straightforward existence of the farm and enter the terrifying, wild, untamed, unpredictable existence of the wilderness. Above all, it was an invitation for the young lion to become who he was destined to be.

After looking back and forth at the farm and the wilderness a couple of times, the youthful lion walked out on the flock and the sheep with whom he had lived for quite a long time, and he followed the beast into the woods to become who he generally had been; a king of the jungle

Lessons of Leadership:

The story of the Lion and the sheep brings out some valuable leadership principles; which here are laid out the most important three:

1- More than anything, Leadership is about attitude and state of mind: There is nothing more important than attitude in life. Two prisoners look outside of their cell; one looked at the dirt on the ground, the other one kept his head up and looked at the stars. We have a freedom to choose our attitude regardless of our circumstances and in leadership, the most important factor is our thinking and mental attitude. The lion decided to become himself by leaving the life of a sheep; a follower. When he believed this in his mind, he started to walk from the reality of the sheep and identify himself with the beast.

2- Leadership is not about following the crowd, but finding your true calling and paving a unique path: While sheep have a tendency to follow blindly, lions walk with authority and consider themselves a leader. Once we find out who we are and pursue a vision, we start to activate the seed of leadership within ourselves. Through daily self-discipline, we can grow in our unique leadership position and have an influence in the area that we were born for. Since leadership is about self discovery, more than anything, a leader's main job is within him or herself.

3- Leadership is a seed within the heart or subconscious mind of human being; in a need of discovery: God created mankind to be the leaders of earth as it is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, “ Let us create man in our image and likeness and let them have dominion over the earth” and leadership is our true nature.” Therefore, every human being has the potential to be a leader. The importance of having a caring mentor and a coach is in turning us from a follower into a leader. Therefore, it is important to seek mentorship and a coach who are able to see our potential and help us cultivate that seed within ourselves.

When we realize leadership is our birth right and something we are born with, our outlook on leadership changes. We realize the idea of Ancient Greek Philosophers of leadership is in itself is in error- since leadership is not a quality that only a small number of people are born with but it is a seed within every human being that can be cultivated and grown in a right environment and self development process. To start our leadership path, it is good to ask ourselves, “ What is my unique vision and calling in life?” As vision gives birth to leadership and take one into one's destiny.

Story Re-Written & Copyrighted Content by Parsa Peykar