His entrance caused a momentary pause in the buzz of activity, as all eyes followed his stoic march up to the Czar’s throne where he placed the trunk at Princess Vasilissa’s feet. The Czar’s glee was uncontainable and he eagerly turned to her saying, “My dear, you have your gown and we shall be wed. Is there anything you’d like as a bride’s gift?” The Princess sent a look to the archer of such piercing fierceness that his breath caught in his chest. He could feel the heat of the banked embers in her eyes and wilted under its intensity. She turned to the Czar. “I would ask that the man who betrayed me be boiled alive.” The Czar’s face broke into an even wider smile, “As you wish, my dear.” He signaled for her order to be carried out. The archer was overcome by a sensation unlike any he’d ever known. There was a maelstrom of sickness in the pit of his stomach. His skin creeped over his body as if it was an entity unto itself. The hair on his body suddenly pricked up and he became deeply cold. His throat tightened and his knees slackened. For an instant he thought he would fall down. His voicing cracking, he asked the Czar to grant him a final request: to bid his horse farewell. The Czar waved his assent as the servants began to prepare the huge fire and cauldron of water. In the courtyard, the Horse of Power took one look at the archer. “I told you not to pick up the feather. I told you that if you did trouble would come to you and you would come to know the meaning of the word, fear. This is the trouble, and that .... that is the fear. There’s only one thing left for you to do. When they come to take you and throw you into the cauldron, break free of them, run with all of your strength, and leap, as if with great joy, into the boiling water.” Tears streaming, the archer assured his horse that he would do as he had instructed. He laid his head on the horse’s neck for a moment, saying goodbye. Pulling himself free, he returned to the palace. He entered the great room just in time to see the Princess Vasilissa pass her hand over the boiling water. Some say to see if it was yet hot enough for her betrayer. Others claim she had an amulet in her hand.
The Czar called for the guards to carry out the order. They took the arms of the archer and began to pull him toward the cauldron. The counsel of his horse echoed in his mind, and he abruptly broke free from the grip of the men. He ran with all of his strength, and leapt as with great joy into the cauldron of boiling water. Down under the bubbling water he sank, and then rose up. He sank down again, and rose up a second time. He submerged for a third time and when he surfaced he leaped out of the cauldron altogether. The company in the palace were astonished. Before where he had been handsome, he now shone with great beauty. Where he had been strong, he now exuded power. His youth had been transformed into an ageless wisdom. The Czar observed all of these things, and quickly realized what had occurred. He ran with all of his strength and leapt as if with great joy into the boiling water. He sank down under the water and rose up. He sank down under the water again, and resurfaced. He sank down for a third time, and was never seen again. The archer and the princess were married, and together they ruled the kingdom, and there was such peace and prosperity as had never been seen before and has never been seen since.
Getting Into Hot Water Transforming our lives isn’t easy. Ever. It takes work, disappointment, persistence, willingness, and often, fear.
Learning to listen to our deep, inner wisdom is the key to successfully navigating our challenges. Spending time with our deep, inner wisdom, before the trouble, can even dissolve a few of the obstacles and allow us to make our journey without them. This requires self-knowledge. This is what we’ve been working on in the Design Your Story; Design Your Life series - cultivating a set of tools that will grow our self-awareness. This awarenesseventually transforms into self-love, and, sovereignty over our lives, as the archer experienced. Getting To Know You You’ve got the lists, journal entries and thought experiments, and maybe, you’ve even written more than that. What’s next? Choose...
Dedicate an amount of time each day for reflection
Learn a meditation technique that works for you - I recommend TM
Continue the conversation with yourself via your writing
Enroll in a coaching program, or, find an accountability partner to support you
Decide on 1 goal, or project, or lifestyle change and list the steps to achieve it
Work only with someone who prefers your success over the status quo
Listen to stories and find the themes that resonate with your life
Courtesy of NASA - 14Megastar-Birth Cluster Lynx Constellation
The End It’s actually just the beginning.... the beginning of a lifelong process of unfolding the golden, radiant, creative self that you are. Remember to share your dreams only with those who treat them with respect. Remember to listen to your Horse of Power during your times of quiet reflection. And...
Remember that failure + persistence + self-acceptance =
The ride to the palace was grim and quiet for the archer.
The princess slept for the entire journey and it was when the archer laid her at the feet of the Czar, and the trumpets were sounded announcing her arrival, that she awoke with a start. “Welcome, my dear! I trust your journey was pleasant?” The Czar held out a hand to bring he to her feet and then to his side. “We shall be married in 3 days!” he proclaimed.
At this the princess replied, “I shall not marry without my wedding dress, and it lies locked in a trunk at the bottom of the Limitless Blue Sea.”
The Czar turned to the archer. “Go. Bring me the wedding gown and do not fail! If you do not succeed, I, myself, shall lengthen your neck by the width of my blade.”
The archer, dismissed and despairing, walked out to where his Horse of Power was waiting. With a heavy heart, he informed the horse of the news.
"I told you not to pick up the feather. I told you that if you did trouble would come to you and you would come to know the meaning of the word, fear. This is not the trouble, nor even yet the fear. We will return to the Land of Never.”
The archer and the horse rode once more and upon reaching the gleaming shore, sat looking. The archer stared forlornly out to the sea. The hopelessness of the task and his betrayal of his beloved weighed in equal measure upon his heart. The Horse of Power watched a large, low creature slowly traversing the sand.
When this wizened, spiky one was within range, the horse raised his iron hoof and planted it immovably on top of its tail.With great screeching and wailing, the giant lobster, for that’s what it was, begged to be let loose.
“Grandfather,
I will release you, if you can do for me this one task. I must have the
trunk that lies at the bottom of the Limitless Blue Sea. Can you bring
it to me?”
The grandfather of all lobsters agreed and when released began to sing in an eerie pitch. It was an ancient song and the archer felt the tones resonate through him.
After a few moments, the sea began to churn, and a great white foam appeared, out of which arose millions of lobsters. They listened to their grandfather, and then, returned to the sea. A short time later, the churning and foaming resumed, and the lobsters surfaced bearing the trunk of the Princess Vasilissa.
The archer thanked the grandfather lobster, picked up the trunk, and rode back to the palace.
In the Design Your Story; Design Your Life series we're exploring the ways to open up a story, live inside of it for a time, and bring what we've discovered out to our everyday lives. The purpose of this work is to consciously create a new story about who you are, the world in which you live, and your place in it.
The archer is in deep, now. He’s experiencing that moment in time when we wonder, “how did this happen to me?”, “how did I get here?” His intentions at the beginning of this story were so simple.
Can you relate to this experience? Have you begun something, a project, a job, a relationship, and found yourself tangled in circumstances beyond your control?
Open your journal and write down what happened and how you felt about it.
When you do this don’t censor yourself. Let your writing come without editing or prejudging. Our biggest block to our success, as we’ve talked about, is our story about who we are, or who we think we are. It may help to write in the third person; pretend it’s your absolute best friend again, and write with the empathy and caring you feel for them.
Failure
The archer has not only failed to win the favor of the Czar, he has fallen in love, betrayed his new love, and now brings the very token that will finalize his loss.
Can life get any worse than this?
Oh, yes, but that’s for the next post.
Right now, let’s talk about failure.
A failure to fail ensures failure.
Here is where folklore characters shine a brilliant light on a profound and simple truth: if you wish to succeed, you must first be willing to fail. And by that, I do mean complete with the feeling of
'ugh! This is awful!'
In this story, the archer has stumbled into his failures. He never intended for the picking up of the feather to lead to this danger, heartbreak, and sadness. It’s a pretty commonplace experience. We think we’re gonna slam dunk it, and instead.....
I told you that if you did trouble would come to you and you would come to know the meaning of the word, fear. This is not the trouble, nor even yet the fear.
Free to Fail Means Free to Succeed
There is no growth, no success, no achievement, without failure preceding it.
It’s a good idea to write about your opinions about failure. Were you taught that failure is embarrassing, stupid, avoidable?
Write a letter to yourself explaining how all great achievers have failed. For example:
Mulla Nasrudin used to stand in the street on market days to be pointed out as an idiot.
No matter how often people offered him a large and a small coin, he always chose the smaller piece. One day, a kindly man said to him: "Mulla, you should take the bigger coin. Then you will have more money and people will no longer be able to make a laughing stock of you."
"That might be true," said Nasrudin, "but if I always take the larger, people will stop offering me money to prove that I am more idiotic than they are.
Doing what you want in life, can often make you look like a fool. The key is,
know your purpose.
The Power of Purpose When I know my purpose, nothing sways me, stops me or delays me in reaching my goal. When I know my purpose, I have a secret knowledge that makes me as wise as Nasrudin, and as rich.
Having meaning and purpose in life is one of the essential keys to understanding how to be happy.
The outer circle is What you do. The second circle is How you do it. The inner circle is Why you do. It's a compelling idea and I have completed my own Golden Circle. It has proven invaluable in inspiring and guiding my choices. I keep it on the wall next to my desk.
Your Golden Circle To complete your own Golden Circle, I suggest you start with your What, the outer circle. This is the easiest area to identify and it may contain one, two or more items. Then, see if you can clearly state your How.
Finally, make a list of what is most important to you in life. Think about what would get you out of bed every morning as if you were jet-fueled. Work to identify your Why.
This is the toughest part and you may need a supportive person, who can reflect back to you what you are saying, to help. It's important that this person be skilled in stepping away from their own opinions in order to fully hear the themes you are communicating.
For a blank copy of this diagram you can visit my Join The Tribe page and download a copy. If you need assistance filling this in, and don't have someone nearby, fill in the Join The Tribe online form and send me a comment requesting help.
An experienced story-listener can hear and see the elemental themes woven in your words.
The Last Word When you know your Why,you may do foolish things, you may look foolish to others, but you will have a bullet-proof belief in who you are,
