Wisdom of the Animals

Bailey Sergott (1,039)

This spring semester Ferris State University hosted a virtual book club for their students. The book that was used was Wisdom of the Animals written by Dr. Patrick Bishop. With host Christine Labby it was an extremely interactive, fun learning experience. The book is broken into four different sections; the introduction, order, disorder, and reorder. Dr. Bishop takes many different amazing animals and pulls out leadership skills that humans can learn from each animal.

What animal would you choose to be?

The first day of the book club, our host Christine, asked everyone if they could be any animal, which one would you be. When I first answered this question I had said a dolphin, because I thought it would be awesome to swim in the ocean. But, after I heard some other students answer I realized that is a much harder question than I thought. I don’t know how I would ever truly choose, they are all so amazing in different ways. Christine answered and said that she would love to be her dog, Mannie, for a day. This got me thinking about my eight month old puppy and everything that goes through his head, I would love to be him for a day.

Learn from your dog

One of my favorite lessons from this book was right in the beginning. The author talks about how our dogs do not wonder what they will do the next day, if they will chase a ball or go for a walk, “In fact, my little Cooper could care less when he completely misjudges the bounce of the ball. He simply scurries to catch the little sucker, returns it to me (sometimes) and wants to play again.” I love this quote out of the book because I really related to it. My dog is a happy puppy who just wants to run and play. Sometimes us humans think too much, we overthink. This is where I can learn from my dog and decide that some things are best to be here and now.

First things first

In section one the author discusses order. The section of order is all about having the right mindset, starting off on the right foot. There are many different perspectives in life and the book specifically talks about two different perspectives. The first one, “big picture,” is about organizing your life around what is most important to you. This is what Stephen Covey calls “putting first things first.” The book then asks the question “what do you want people to remember about you?” I like that question because it opens up a deeper part of thinking, what do I want people to remember me as? This is who you want to be and how you want to be remembered, it’s who you are. The second perspective the book talks about is the “little picture” and this is about living in the present, here and now. It’s important to look at different perspectives to gain different views on life.

Wood ants

My favorite animal in the order section is the wood ants. I myself was surprised that this was my favorite but I found these little guys fascinating. Wood ants can carry up to ten times their own weight and they naturally fight with other neighboring wood ants. The amazing thing about these ants is that they have begun to change their instincts from fighting colonies to collaborating with them to build a thriving community. If ants can go against nature and change for the better, I think humans can learn to do the same.

We are all unique

The next section is called disorder and the author describes this as a shock of awakening. This can happen from failures, losses, heartbreaks or many other tragic things we experience in life. Dr. Bishop writes that this is the point of transformational leadership that becomes uncomfortable because growth can only happen out of your comfort zone. My favorite animal in this section was the platypus. The platypus is a much more unique animal than I ever knew. The platypus is a mammal that lays eggs, has webbed feet, a long tail and a bill. Not only that, but platypus relies almost completely on their bill for direction. All animals are quite unique, but the platypus amazes me with all of it’s different features. What’s incredible about animals is that they have no idea how amazing they are. When you can see that in animals, you can start to see that in humans too. No two people are the same, we are all unique and we are all special.

Transformation

The last section of the book is called reorder. This section is about transforming into something new. This helps us live less by our ego and more by what we know is real in our hearts. A great example of a transformation in an animal is the monarch butterfly. The butterfly transforms from a little caterpillar with 12 eyes, to a beautiful butterfly with two eyes and wings. We can learn from the butterfly in our process of growth and renewal. When a person goes through the shock of awakening they have a choice to open up or to shut down. Dr. Bishop talks about finding a new way to live, “If we can hold the pain, not suppressing it and not acting it out, we find a radically new way to live.” I love this quote because it’s not about suppressing the pain but overcoming it, to transform into something new.

Final thoughts

Reading this book was not only informational but it was eye opening. I never realized how much we truly can learn from animals and nature. At the end of the book the author talks about how the second half of life is not an end point, or a place that you “reach.” I really liked that it ended on that note because I think so many people think they are done growing once they are in a stable career and family. But the truth is, we never should stop growing and transforming into something new. We should always push ourselves out of our comfort zone to reach our full potential.