Defending The Great Nation Of You
A story about the saboteurs of a great nation and what one ruler did to protect it.
The following story invites you to take on the role of the central character, a ruler of a great nation that is amidst an attack.
There are two versions of the story (each provided below), which ruler best describes you?
Act I - losing ground
Imagine you are the ruler of a great nation, you are under attack, you stand to lose your land, your rulership, and everything you’ve built a lifetime creating.
You are hurried, you are under attack, and it's up to you to decide how to respond, your main line of defense is currently under siege, and losing ground quickly.
On the ground, your enemy seems to be swarming from EVERYWHERE. All angles are compromised, time is running out, soon there will be nothing left. There is too much to take in; you can’t possibly weigh all outcomes.
You feel overwhelmed with options and you can’t show this weakness.
You consult with your lieutenant; this is your top general in command of your entire defense strategy. What you don't know is that your lieutenant is motivated by power and greed and is secretly working with your opposer to ensure your defeat.
Your lieutenant sees the opportunity to take advantage of your distressed state and gives you a solution for a steadfast victory. This sounds amazing, and the fact that you can blame the lieutenant if it doesn’t work gives you quiet comfort.
This is you, giving away the power of responsibility.
As night falls, you do an inventory of the day, a substantial portion of your army has been lost, you fear losing your rule and land.
You stare into the starry sky with worry, what will come of you should your kingdom fall. Your significance will be depleted, your position of power displaced, and the people that questioned your capability to run this land will be proven right.
This is your greatest fear.
Your partner, whom you have been wed to for 14 years, enters your chambers and sees the worry in your busy eyes. With compassionate understanding, your partner offers advice, sharing concerns that the lieutenant is not loyal and is not to be trusted.
You reject this adamantly, if this were true, it would mean you missed seeing these signs, you have far too much experience to make such a mistake.
This is a blindspot of arrogance.
After rejecting your partner’s advice, you are alone again, from your royal jug, you pour a heavy hand of wine into your gauntlet. The familiar sweetness on your lips, the liquid gently rolling into your belly, pleases you.
You drink again, this time mid-way through you feel a sudden burning in the pit of your stomach, you instantly taste the truth of betrayal, but it’s too late.
In your last breath, you wonder what your life would have been like had you won this battle, proving to everyone your worth.
The END.
Act II - attitude determines outcome.
A story about the saboteurs of a great nation and what one ruler did to protect it.
Imagine you are the ruler of a great nation, under attack, standing to lose your land, your rulership, and everything you’ve built a lifetime creating.
You are hurried, you are under attack, and it's up to you to decide how to respond, your main line of defense is currently under siege, and losing ground quickly.
On the ground, your enemy seems to be swarming from EVERYWHERE. All angles are compromised, time is running out, soon there will be nothing left. There is too much to take in; you can’t possibly weigh all outcomes.
You feel overwhelmed with options,
you feel it rise up in your body,
and you pause, giving it space to become familiar.
This is you, owning the power of your emotions.
You consult with your lieutenant; this is your top general in command of your entire defense strategy. What you don’t know is that your lieutenant is motivated by power and greed and is secretly working with your opposer to ensure your defeat.
Your lieutenant sees the opportunity to take advantage of your distressed state and gives you a solution for a steadfast victory. This sounds amazing, and yet you notice something feels off.
You are unable to sort out if what you feel is the rising vibration preparing you for battle, or if there is something else calling for your attention. You excuse yourself for a moment of quiet contemplation.
This is you, moving the chaos of the situation to your center of control.
During this time, you practice the ancient techniques passed down to you from sage advisors of your past. Closing your eyes you breathe deeply, filling the bellows of your belly with deep breaths of air, each followed by long, steady, whispering exhales.
With each swell of breath, and subsequent exhale, you feel the energy of the tension in your body move from a concentrated tightness in your shoulders, to a wave of energy that ebbs and flows, each wave builds upon the other as the rise and fall of your chest carries the energy further and further to your body, within a short time, each breath fills your entire body with a calm and powerful vibration, you have found your source.
It is as if time has stopped. You guide your awareness to the current situation, allowing various options to take shape, paying close attention to what’s important to notice in each.
Within minutes, you are back to the lieutenant, and you ask him questions of inquiry that you had not thought to ask in your early state.
You notice now that your questions bring a slight shift within the lieutenant, and the quick answers you get back are both incomplete and inconsistent. You listen quietly, and with a nod of thanks, you dismiss him, asking to hold off action until morning.
This is not the first time that your intuition has sent you messages of warning.
You pay attention to the power of your intuition.
You summon your Advisory Council to meet swiftly in your chambers.
Your council consists of your life partner whom you’ve been wed to 14-years, an unassuming sage from the village who uses very few words to say so much, and the “Keeper,” the Keeper is the person in charge of maintaining the experience of the palace to its impeccable condition.
During the time to your rule, a ruler seeking advice from a Keeper would be seen as weak and a sign of unfitness.
You have quietly shed the illusion that wisdom is held by power. You know that wisdom is held by people and that your Keeper is one of the finest. With the Keeper by your side, you have accurate information and you are close to the most important details.
In your Advisory Council are the people that love and support you, and you love and support them.
This is your community.
You meet your council in the chamber of wisdom. You do not meet here often, but when you do, everyone knows that it is a sacred time that calls for everyone's full presence.
It does not take long for a plan to form. After sharing your suspicions about the Lieutenant, you learn others share the same feelings, and collectively you decide to check your assumptions with a test. The keeper arranges a private note to the Lieutenant, a message from your enemy, requesting to meet at midnight in the valley of the orange grove.
You make a plan for two potential outcomes of the Lieutenant's actions; you feel as prepared as you can to take on the current circumstance.
From your royal jug, you pour for each of your advisers a crisp, refreshing glass; you’ve chosen the jug of freshwater with orange peel, there is no time for wine, there is too much work to do.
You raise your glass, lock eyes with each, bow in reverence, and pay gratitude to the love, service, and friendship you share. You feel full and connected.
That night, in the shadows of the valley of the orange grove, as the Lieutenant arrives, you step out from behind the trees. You immediately recognize the Lieutenant's surprise, his body tenses, the white of fear on his face shines so brightly it lights the shadows.
Your senses confirm the truth of the Lieutenant's betrayal.
You act swiftly; the Lieutenant is taken into custody and removed immediately from responsibility. You have no ears to hear his pleas; his motivation has been revealed; you have no time for this distraction; there is much work to be done.
This is you, acting with the confidence of clarity,
there is no room for the overwhelm of distraction,
your focus is decisive and powerful.
The second you confirm the sabotage of the Lieutenant, you nod to the 4-horseman standing in wait.
Each of the horsemen race to their respective stations, communicating the plan to the captains of each division, giving them and their team's full authority and autonomy to act immediately.
The captains, unencumbered by the Lieutenant's distracting command, motivated by the knowledge that the protection of the Kingdom is trusted with them, act fearlessly with a surprise attack on the opposer's main camp.
You trust that your teams are strong and capable; the teams are most familiar with the enemy's intricacies and they are in the best position to know exactly what to do.
You ride back to the palace to prepare for the next phase of your plan, an exit strategy that will protect the people, should the Kingdom fall.
You know nothing is guaranteed, and you are prepared.
In the rhythm of your ride back, you can still sense the powerful vibration of confidence. Even though you don’t know the outcome, you have great resolve in knowing that you’ve done the very best you can to serve the Kingdom.
Knowing this is enough, if you die tonight, it will be with honor.
By the time you return to the palace, you notice with surprise your partner who stands at the gates, with three of the captains, waiting to receive you. You notice that the calm air of their demeanor.
As you dismount, your partner rushes to you with arms wide, and smiling eyes, “we are safe, we have defeated the saboteurs, they have rescinded on all fronts, we did it!”
“How is it possible that this happened so fast?” you ask the captains with disbelief.
The captain closest to you, responds:
“As soon as we heard the word, we knew our best defense would be to move fast. We were able to confirm the location of the enemy's main camp from the information we found in the Lieutenant's quarters.”
The second captain finishes: “We hit the camp swiftly from all sides, their warriors were full of ale and wine, they were not prepared and had no choice but to quickly surrender!”
A great smile takes over your face. Relieved for the safety restored to the people and proud of the quality of humans in your company.
“We must celebrate!!!
Let us dance!!!,"
You shout.
Looking up with joy to the starry skies.
You know this will not be the last time you’ll need to defend the Kingdom, and you look forward with quiet confidence.
You know who you are, and you are prepared to give your best until your last breath, this is the gift and duty of your life.
The End
or is it just the beginning?
- Click for more reading about the Saboteurs (Blindspot, Fear, Overload & Convenience):
- Click for more reading about the five foundations of fulfillment (Clarity, Capability, Community, Confidence, Commitment):
- Click to Take An Inventory Of Your Life and see how you are doing in each of these areas.
Authors notes:
This classic tale showcases all four saboteurs conspiring together: in act I, information overwhelm works as disorienting fuel in the convenience economy, feeding the hungry face of egoic fear in a palace of false mirrors and blind spots, the ending is best described by Maya Angelo when she said: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
If it’s not clear, the real tragedy of this story is that even in the last breath, the ruler still chases a story of self-worth dependent on his position, not his person.
In the past 100 years or so, we’ve been taught to celebrate knowledge, position, things, and power. Albeit we do it in a much more civilized way than the battlefields, it is still a view of who we are and what’s important that doesn’t paint the whole picture.
And what’s happening now, right before our eyes, in this incredible opportunity to wake up to it, to move beyond status/success and move into a story of living our lives with significance.
The good news is, the pursuit of one (success) doesn’t mean the sacrifice of the other (significance).
It is time to s-l-o-w down enough to devise strategies and systems that serve us to win against the saboteurs and create the true kingdom of our lives.
In act II, we see what happens when the saboteurs are conquered as the character works through the habits and practices that guide Clarity of what to do, inspires the Confidence of self-worth that is independent of the result, leverages the collective wisdom of Community, enacts precise Commitment, and allows the Capabilities of all members to serve to their fullest being.
I hope that this story moves you to ask questions about how you are living. To give insight into which saboteurs may be unconsciously impacting your life and inspire the action to take back control; so that you can live out your full capabilities because I believe that is what this world needs most.
Here's to you!
Maurice
Retreats | The Life Inventory Assessment
