You try to make good decisions when you're in the space to make good decisions knowing that at some point you're probably not going to make good decisions.

Welcome to the one you feed throughout time great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have quotes like garbage in garbage out or you are what you think ring true.

And yet for many of us our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us we tend toward negativity self pity jealousy or fear.

We see what we don't have instead of what we do we think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit.

But it's not just about thinking our actions matter it takes conscious consistent and creative effort to make a life worth living.

This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction how they feed their good wolf.

Hey everybody are you ready for a brand new podcast that you had no idea existed I'm Roy Scoville and I'm Daniel van Kirk and it's the Penn Pals podcast.

Maybe you've had a pen pal before where you have two of them right now you send us your letters about anything going on in your life got a mean grandma need a new haircut whatever it is send it to us and we have guests like Will Ferrell Andy Sandberg rose burn Brett Goldstein and Mandy Moore listen to the Pimpals podcast on Will Ferrell's big money players network on the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

Thanks for joining us our guest on this episode is Colin Gowell guitarist of the American band watershed Colin also has a solo career with and without his backing band the lonely bones his album superior the best of Colin Gowell was released in December 2016 Colin is also the lead writer editor and founder of the website pencil storm and the owner of the legendary Collins coffee in Columbus Ohio this conversation was recorded live in Colin's kitchen and his home.

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And here's the interview with Colin Gowell hi Colin welcome to the show great to be here I'm excited to have you on for a couple reasons I think you are one of the friends that I've had longest in my life a long time since we were like 10 or something which is a long time and I also think you are probably one of the most criminally

underrated and unknown songwriters there is out there so we'll talk some about your songs and but I'm excited to have you on I think it's going to be fun.

To be here I know it is funny how our lives just always seem to they always seem to connect some way somehow we never really set out but we just they're always kind of just going back and yeah back and forth here we are so let's start like we always do with the parable there's a grandfather who's talking with grandson he says in life there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle.

One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness and bravery and love and the others a bad wolf which represents things like greed and hatred and fear.

And the grandson stops and he thinks about it for a second looks up at his grandfather and he says well grandfather which one wins and the grandfather says the one you feed so I'd like to start off by asking you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do.

Well I think especially coming mostly as a background as a musician and a touring musician you see talented people that fall into bad habits and they you know everyone kind of has some energy when they're young and you can go out and do it.

And then when you get kind of you know you get hit or you know you get around some unhealthy people things fall apart so I think to me it's always been you know having spent most my life probably till I was like from 18 to 35 touring it was like how do I do healthy habits how do I keep playing music.

I think you're not sick without you know drinking too much or getting bitter or I guess just basically you know falling off that pyramid so I always try to take you know each day at a time try and stay creative try and have.

You know healthy habits like when things get tough like you know you run you go workout you try to eat right you try to control the things you can.

And then you get a good decision when you're in the space to make good decisions knowing that at some point you're probably not going to make good decisions if that makes any sense so I guess on that's kind of I kind of approach it and almost like a very day today I don't think long term I think more like what can I do today what can I do now if I'm not tired why would I drink coffee right now I don't need it right now just drink water.

You know things like that and just kind of keep me on the path to you know being creative and you know being a healthy person and still trying to achieve something on a on whatever that means on a day to day basis so I guess that would be my I think I learned more from watching others what what not to do right and I try to you know pick up on those cues and carve out my own little path that'll kind of just keep me surviving from a day to day basis if that makes any sense.

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