Welcome to the Our Moral Compass Podcast. Each daily reading focuses on a different quote on how we can best apply it to our own moral compass and one of the five areas in Social Emotional Learning: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision Making. Thank you for listening and we hope you consider subscribing to the podcast for future episodes.
What Really Counts
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight—it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
They say that size matters but I don’t necessarily agree and I’d like to think our former President Dwight D. Eisenhower supports my claim that size does not matter. He essentially implies that it is what is on the inside that counts rather than what the may appear on the outside. There are many fables or real life stories that support this.
The first story that comes to mind is the fable The Tortoise and the Hare which I am sure you are familiar with. The Hare makes fun of the Tortoise for their slow demeanor and teases them asking how they can get anywhere based on how slow they move. The Tortoise challenges the Hare to a race to see who is fastest and the Hare accepts and takes off. Instead of trying to win the race off the Hare gets enough of a lead and takes a nap. Meanwhile the Tortoise catches up and passes the Hare. By the time the Hare realizes this and tries to win the race it is too late as he loses to the Tortoise. The moral of the story is the race is not always to the swift but more importantly the Tortoise had heart and a deep sense of fight within him that he’d come out on top.
The story of David and Goliath is another one that showed pure heart and determination once again displayed by David as he faced the giant Goliath, who terrorized the Israelites. For 40 days, twice a day, Goliath fought their most notable warriors until David accepted the challenge and to everyone’s surprise defeated Goliath with only his slingshot and five stones. Again, another example of the fight within someone is more powerful than the size of someone.
Lastly, February 11, 1990 in the Tokyo Dome. The TKO that no one saw coming other than James “Buster” Douglas envisioned as he upset Heavyweight and Undefeated Champion “Iron Mike” Tyson in the 10th round. For a fight that was originally predicted to last only 90 seconds, from the sound of the first bell, Buster Douglas showed no signs of fear. When he knocked Tyson down the first time sent shockwaves around the world and even surprised Tyson. In the end, Douglas was the more determined fighter that day and the fight from within helped him to make history.
So the size of the fight in the dog is more powerful than the size of the dog in the fight. Having the belief in yourself that even when the odds are stacked up against you you shall overcome any obstacle. This allows your moral compass to reach levels that you may never have imagined before.
What does this quote mean to you and how can you apply today’s message towards defining/refining your own moral compass?
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Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Relaxing Piano Music” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A special thank you to Feedspot for recognizing the Our Moral Compass podcast as one of the Top 10 Social Emotional Learning Podcasts on the internet. It is an honor to be amongst the other podcasts on this list as we all strive to make this world a better place.
Becoming The Change 