The Man in the Iron Mask

Things I Love #172…Tea.

I’ve been under the weather this week and when I don’t feel well, tea is life. I don’t know if drinking tea actually makes me better, but I do know that it makes me feel better. It’s like, with each sip, everything feels as if it’s gonna be okay.

I pray that these articles do for you, what tea does for me…

Let’s get 2 work.

There is a movie called “The Man in the Iron Mask” which stars Leonardo Dicaprio and was released in 1998. To quickly sum up the movie, it’s about twin brothers. One brother is an evil king. The other brother is good and wrongfully locked away in a dungeon. The crux of the movie lies with the 3 Musketeers who must find a way to put the good brother on the throne and kill the wicked one.

So, what does that have to do with this?

You know that negative voice in your head that you hear constantly. The one that talks to you in a way you would never talk to any other human being. The one that just never shuts the fuck up. That voice… is the evil twin brother who rules your mind.

You know that positive voice that you can barely hear. The one that encourages you with a whisper as if it’s in a fuckin library. That voice… is the good twin brother, the rightful king, and the reason he’s so hard to hear is because he’s chained up in a basement with an iron mask.

Who did this?

Who gave the evil brother absolute power?

Who dared to imprison the good brother and place him in iron confinement for all of eternity?

You did. Yard by yard and link by link.

When you were a child, your kingdom was a peaceful place full of joy and fulfilment. But as you aged, you allowed people with bad intentions to infiltrate and ruin your kingdom. You chose to believe in the negative things about yourself, you chose fear over faith, you chose to put other people’s opinions above your own. Year after year, decade after decade, you, unknowingly, have been the evil twin’s number one accomplice in sabotaging your own mind.

YOU did this.

All hope is not lost. Now, you must be like the 3 Musketeers. Your mission is to rescue the man in the iron mask and place him back on the throne.

Here’s how…

#1. Become AWARE of your thinking, LISTEN to your inner dialogue, and STUDY the “Losing Voice.”

-How do you talk to yourself? What kind of “losing” vocabulary is said? When is it the loudest? When is it the most persistent? Where did that particular belief come from?

#2. Take back CONTROL by counteracting the “Losing Voice” with the “Winning Voice.”

Example…

-Thought: “You’re never going to find a good woman.”

-Losing Voice: “Yeah, why would anybody want to be with someone like me.”

-Winning Voice: “That’s not true.”

-Losing Voice: “It’s just too late for me.”

-Winning Voice: “Not true! Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better. It hasn’t happened because it wasn’t time to happen. When the time does come, I will be ready for her.”

-Notice the Losing Voice retreat. You have now put the rightful king on the throne. BUT…the Losing Voice will be back, again and again and again, but for now, you have won.

#3. Practice Makes Perfect.

-This is not the movies where we can wrap shit up in 2 hours. This is going to take deliberate effort for the rest of your life. Having anything good in life requires constant upkeep and this is no different. The evil brother ain’t going nowhere and he will ALWAYS be looking for a moment of weakness. Your Winning Voice must be armed and ready with EVIDENCE in order to defeat the Losing Voice on a daily basis. This isn’t easy, but what’s the alternative, let the wicked brother continue to wreak havoc while you sit back and do nothing?

All for one…One for all.

WALT FACTUALL