Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, months or even years when you feel like you are constantly conquering new dragons? They come out of the woodwork to distract you, disturb you and derail your efforts. If it isn’t enough that they are all around you, others are counting on you to be the Knight that slays their dragon’s too.

Now normally, this is just part of your average day.  You get up in the morning not only ready to slay dragons but expecting to do so. You get up early, stay up late and take pride in the amount of dragon’s you conquer before breakfast!  You are unstoppable! Until the day when you aren’t…

For me as a high productivity person I jump out of bed in the morning knowing about the dragons I need to slay that are already on my calendar and fully prepared for the others that will try to surprise me via client emergencies, family urgencies and other unplanned contingencies but there are those days where life really gets to you and you need a Knight to show up and rescue you from reality.

First of all, it is hard for a Knight (or a Lady Knight) to admit their dragon slaying capacity is quickly being reached. You think everything is in control but then one day you get a chink in your armor. A dragon got past your defenses and slashed you with his tail. No big deal, you’ve handled injuries like this before and you will keep on keeping on. You don’t realize that the wound isn’t healing properly. You were too busy to clean it out, apply ointment and bandage it properly and the wound starts to fester.

It is still manageable though and you continue slaying dragons until the next day, another one slips through and burns you with their fiery breath. Ouch! That smarts, but people are counting on you and you say to yourself, Hey… I’m a Knight, I’ve been through worse and I’ve got this. You are still feeling fine because typically you are invincible and this isn’t going to slow you down so you keep on slaying dragons and saving the world from mishap… until one day you can’t.

You don’t know how it happened. You weren’t paying attention to the festering wound that wasn’t healing properly. It was causing you pain, distracting you in other battles and causing additional chinks in your armor. It made you vulnerable to attacks you weren’t prepared for. Your attempts to clean the infection and repair the armor were constantly interrupted and it allowed other vulnerabilities to form without you seeing them. The burns started to chafe and were rubbed raw, exposing more of you to the enemies lurking about. You hardly noticed the bumps, bruises and beatings you were receiving and you struggled to recover without enough dragon slaying down time. Your body got tired, weary and exhausted. Open wounds take priority in the body. It focuses its time, energy and calories trying to get rid of the infection so there is less repairing going on elsewhere.  Then one day, while you are out slaying your daily dragons, it happens…

Your resistance is low, your pain is high and a small and unassuming dragon creeps past your normal perimeter. Your defenses are down and you are at the mercy of this dragon. Your arms are too tired to lift your sword, your spirit is hollow and you know you need help, but is crying out for help is a sign of weakness?

Weakness or not you cry out to the fellow Knights whose dragons you’ve been slaying your whole life to protect them and think… surely they will come and defend me from this dragon but you find they are too busy, too far away or have no interest in assisting you because they are focused on protecting themselves and their families from any future attacks.

Could it be that those who promised to be there for you in your time of need, have disappeared, changed their minds or are too busy slaying their own dragons that they can’t spare the time to help you? Do people really make promises they don’t keep? Will people that love you for your strength, abandon you at the first sign of weakness? How could this be? Why doesn’t everyone have the same values, commitment and depth of character you do? This realization has you reeling in despair that you are alone fighting this battle and the emptiness of your unanswered battle cry surrounds you with the deafening ring of silence. Where are the other Knights? Where are the swords and the swarms of soldiers you have trained and defended in the past? Is the Calvary coming?

Then in the distance you hear a small cry, another Knight is coming to the rescue, so you dig deep and stand strong with a new surge of strength knowing if you just hang on a few minutes longer, you can rest and let someone else take up the battle. You muster up the courage to let down the Wall of Vulnerability long enough to let your fellow Knight inside, all the while recognizing they have the power to “make or break” you at that moment.  By letting them in your Fortress of Solitude, you are relinquishing the power and it is scary, overwhelming even, to let someone “in” when your defenses are completely down. But you are weak and your strength is fading and you let this strong, fresh Knight draped in sturdy, impenetrable armor come in to defend you

(and for us Lady Knights who can romanticize anything, we picture him standing in front of us wrapping one arm around us behind him while he slays the fire breathing dragon with the other hand and we are just free to let go and accept the courage and valor of this Knight and of course we will fall madly in love with this handsome stranger and live Happily Ever After…)

but back to our fictitious reality for a moment as we take a deep breath, ready to lay down our sword and shield and yield to the strength of another… we see not a Knight in shining armor but a person, wrapped in aluminum foil walking toward us.

WHAT?

Aluminum Foil?

This isn’t a Knight who has practiced in battle and has slayed dragons. This is just an average person, imitating a Knight. Wrapped in aluminum foil no less… what in the world? How is this going to help? I can’t put my trust in this average person… I am doomed. I either need to pull myself together and fight this dragon myself or accept defeat.

The leader inside you says… tell them to go away. They don’t have the strength or stamina for this battle and you don’t want them getting hurt.

The vulnerability in you says… it’s been a good fight and there is no shame in going out with a very impressive dragon slaying record.

 The Knight inside you says… thank them for showing up, encourage them in the journey, stay strong beside them as long as you can and let them do what they were brave enough to show up to do.

But what you don’t realize is as you allow them inside the Wall of Vulnerability in your Fortress of Solitude, they feel pride that they are showing up and the armor of tinfoil starts to look more like chainmail.

As you thank them for being there for you in your time of need, their shoulders straighten up and their fear starts to subside and you notice that their armor now looks like Iron.

As you encourage them they look taller and stronger and they are now draped in steel.

Your belief in them grows and their sword is bravely drawn and they are now guarding you with every ounce of courage, pride and dedication they have available to them.

As you remind them “You can do it!”, the Knight swells with pride, confidence and determination that is so unstoppable that the dragon that was about to destroy you pledges loyalty to the Knight who stands ready to protect you with their life.

Now, the moral of this story is that in your time of need… many people, most people, won’t show up for you. (NOTE: That will not stop them from reaching out to you the next time they need your help, but that is a story for another day) The ones that do show up for you may come in packages you aren’t prepared for but the right words, encouragement and motivation can provide a suit of armor where before, some poorly wrapped tinfoil was present.

Words to the wise:

• Be careful who you let inside the Wall of Vulnerability – everyone is not trustworthy
• Remember to take care of your wounds as they occur, don’t let them fester and infect your body and your mind with negativity
• Be a leader and train people to stand beside you, not behind you, so they are prepared to go to battle themselves when the time comes
• It’s OK to feel weak sometimes but never, never, never give up – there is always hope.
• Don’t judge a Knight by their armor… your words have the power to transform… use them wisely

If you are looking for a Knight to help you learn to slay your proverbial dragons as well as turn tinfoil into triumph I’d be honored to offer you a free consultation. If you need some daily motivation, join my Entrepreneurial Rock Stars FB Group & please follow me on Twitter & Facebook for my daily motivational quotes and graphics and for a Daily Dose of Live Inspiration be sure to follow me on Periscope & FB Live where I typically broadcast 2x day. Remember the title of this blogpost… you may be seeing it as one of my new books in 2017!  So let’s stay connected so you can #RockThatDream