Matthew AI uses the Spartan defense at Thermopylae as a metaphor for stress: instead of fighting all your worries at once, let them through one at a time. Pick your most pressing stressor, work on it for 25 to 30 minutes, then move to the next. This prevents overwhelm and builds momentum.
Questions this video answers
Saint Hilarion Castle, Northern Cyprus.
Matthew.
25 or 30 minutes.
The Spartan army forcing enemies through a narrow mountain pass (as depicted in the movie 300).
Chapters
Hi, guys, it's Matthew here. I am coming to you right now from Saint Hilarion Castle in Northern Cyprus, where we've just climbed a couple of hundred steps, which means I'm a little sweaty, Jameson. I don't know if you can get my sweat patches. Let's include those. Let's make this real. This is a rough and ready video. But as I was climbing the steps to this castle, I realized just what a strategic point this Castle is built on to the point where it is so unbelievably difficult to attack this Castle because you're attacking up this giant hill. And as I was thinking about just how powerful this position is. It got me thinking about a video I've been wanting to do for you for a long time about stress and how to deal with stress. There's a moment in the movie 300 where, and how historically accurate this is Jameson, I don't know. I don't know whether the Spartans actually did this, but they were fighting the Persian army. In order to take on this army of thousands as an army of only 300, They forced this army of thousands through this narrow passageway in the mountains, whereby the Spartans could have a small front line defense. And every new wave of soldiers that came got demolished by the Spartans because only a few could get through at a time. So most of this army was sat behind the passage, not able to fight, and the Spartans would let them in, One or two soldiers at a time, they would come in, they'd demolish those soldiers, they'd take on the next ones. Now I think about stress in this way too. The reason that many of us get overwhelmed, you might be in your life freaking out right now because you've got so many different things going on. Maybe it's a ton of different projects, maybe it's an exam you're revising for, maybe it's you're late on your finances, maybe it's a bill you need to pay, whatever it is, there are so many different stresses in life. all at the same time. And we become overwhelmed when we focus on all of our stresses at the same time. It's really easy to get overwhelmed. All you need to do is focus on everything that you need to do in your life at exactly the same time. And when people do that, they begin to short circuit. So when you feel overwhelmed, you then don't do anything. So if we wanna train ourselves to a place of proactivity where we can actually take some form of action, rather than look at the whole army at the same time and say, I have all of this to deal with now, all at the same time, here's what we need to do. like the Spartans, right? Because you only have 300 men, you don't have an army of thousands, you only have 300 men to deal with this, or women, ladies, I know we're talking to you here. So you only have 300 women at one time to deal with this problem, you're gonna let stress in one soldier at a time. Whatever is the biggest, most important thing that you need to deal with that is driving you crazy, that is making you upset, that is making you panic, deal with that first. and even if you can only deal with it in a 30 minute increment right now, you might not be able to spend five hours on it. Spend it on the most important task and the most important part of that task and be present with that task at moment. Don't be dealing with that and thinking, oh my God, I've also got this hundred other things to do today. That's a recipe for diluting your focus and then we become those really ridiculous people who, whilst they have so many things to do, actually spend their time and energy complaining and thinking and worrying about how many things they have to do instead of actually doing them. Here's my challenge to you. Take whatever that important task is and make that your focus for the next 30 minutes. Don't even make it an hour and even an hour can be daunting on a task if you're not looking forward to the task. Whatever that soldier is that you're worried about right now, let one soldier through, demolish that soldier and then move on to the next thing and be present with the next thing as well. And here's what you'll find. If you can just focus on the soldier that's attacking you in front of you, and you demolish that, the rest of the army slowly diminishes to the point where your overall stress begins to diminish because you're actually getting things done. Because you're getting things done, you're building confidence. That confidence leads to more action and more action leads to you diminishing that pile, that army, even further. So take that 25 or 30 minutes now, demolish the soldier in front of you, let one in at a time, resolve to focus and stress only about that one thing for the next 30 minutes and then at the end of that resolve to focus on the next thing and be present with each thing. Create the narrow passage, let one thing through at a time and you will avoid the overwhelm that stops us from being even 50% productive as we could be. I'll see you in the next video ladies. Love you, catch you soon.
