A speaker uses the Princess and the Pea to explain how men, especially leaders, layer protection around pain and vulnerability until hidden wounds fester into illness. Recognizing what irritates you, facing the real problem underneath, and choosing honesty is how you heal and stop plateauing.
I wanna share with you a story of a king who had an only son, a prince, who was about to become of age. And he needed to find a princess that was worthy for his son. And in a faraway kingdom was this amazingly beautiful princess that He felt like aligning those two kingdoms would empower him to greatness, but he needed to make sure that the princess was pure. In order to do this, he invited the princess over, got to know her, and asked her to stay the night in his palace. And that he would make the accommodations amazing for her by stacking up 8, 10, 12 of his best mattresses. But at the very bottom of that, he stuck a pea, a single pea. And he knew that if she was of pure royalty, that she would be able to feel that lump in that mattress. Now, if you've all heard that fairy tale, you know that she did. It was very uncomfortable. And through all the layers of mattresses, she still felt felt that irritation, that uneasiness. See, we are the same way in life. As we become older, as we grow, we build layer and layer and layers of protection around us because we don't want the world to see what's irritating us, what's rubbing us wrong, what's impeding into our ribs. Or more so into our heart. See, as we become older, as we go through life, battle scars, losses, hurt, pain, we build guards around us because we don't want to seem weak. We don't want for others to see our vulnerability. We want to look at that we are strong. That we're powerful, we're mighty men. But behind closed doors, in all reality, we feel the pain. There's always an irritation, an uncomfortable situation in all our lives. What is it in your life that you have been become callous to? What is it in your world day to day that you've become numb to? That it's been such an irritation for so long that it's now become a way of life? I need you to stop and reflect. Because see, until we can feel that burden, until we can really resonate and acknowledge that sore spot in our life, can we start it to heal? Because if it doesn't heal, what happens? It will fester. And if it festers, it becomes an infection. And once it becomes an infection, it becomes catastrophic. See, we only have two choices in life. I'm gonna share this with you. See, we're either healthy or we're sick. And if we're healthy, there's no decisions to be made. We just continue. But if we're sick, we have to decide and determine and understand, is the sickness going to heal or is it going to get worse? Now, if it's going to heal, if we're gonna get better, no big deal, we move on. But if it's going to get worse, then we have to understand and determine determine, are we going to live or we're going to die? And if we're going to live, then we have nothing to decide. We just move on. But if we're going to die, we have two choices. And in that, if we die, we have going to go to heaven, we're going to go to hell. See, if we go to heaven, it's no big deal. If we go to hell, we have two choices: original or extra crispy. See, understand that everything in life is a choice, and whichever choice you make determines where your next move is. And if we allow those pains, if we allow those irritations to become calloused in our life, we'll never grow. We'll never evolve. We'll never develop. Look in the mirror. Fully understand what's irritating you, what's rubbing you raw, and how do we fix that so that you can become the absolute best you can ever be. You've got to remove the irritations. You have to remove the illnesses. You have to remove the source for you to fully evolve. And in order to do that, you have to get rid of all these layers of protection and make yourself vulnerable so that you can be authentic. You can be real. You can be true. If you're ready, to take on that challenge, then let's go. I'm ready to help you.
