Ancient Fables Help You Achieve Success

 

 

If you want to achieve even more, here is a potent success tip: enlist the help of your unconscious in your endeavors.

It’s easier than it sounds. A lot easier.

Because the unconscious part of your mind prefers to communicate with images — even more than words — the process of reaching your goals can be optimized when you spend a little time with images that resonate with you.

Myths and fables are stories that are especially rich with vivid and unusual images.

 

3 Fables that Unlock the Power of Your Unconscious

In the growing movement of depth psychology, researchers are exploring the hidden potential of images. Fables, myths, and icons — all of these can be powerful keys that unlock the corresponding archetypal energy that has lain dormant within us, waiting to be set free!

I realize that this all sounds kind of fancy, but archetypal images don’t need to be analyzed in order to be effective. In order to work for you, they need only be tended to.

“…success comes that much more quickly
when you choose to see the world through fresh eyes”

Though I’ve included my own commentary here as a matter of interest, I encourage you to explore the original source material, and I’ve included links to do just that.  Here, then, are 3 fables to unlock the deeper success energies inside of you!

1.  Fable for Success: Rapunzel

This is a very, very old story that goes back at least as far back as 1000 AD in the middle east, and maybe even back farther than that. Many different cultures across the globe have variations of this same tale. Why would this story be told over and over again for over a thousand years? Clearly, on some deep level, it speaks to a most soulful part of the human experience.

The pivotal part of Rapunzel — and the most remembered — is when the Prince calls up to the tower window, where Rapunzel is trapped.  “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me.”

Rapunzel drops down her long braid, and the prince uses it as a rope to climb up the wall of the tower. A romantic night ensues, and something important is conceived between the couple.

And so it is in life, that we must participate actively in our own rescue.

Seems simple, but millions of people are waiting for something outside of themselves to “happen to them” to make life better. This fable activates the energy of personal responsibility. The image of the prince scaling the tower to rescue Rapunzel while using her own hair as a rope, is a powerful one.

2.  Fable for Success: The Tortoise and the Hare

The sprightly Hare likes to continually tease the Tortoise for being slow-moving. Finally, the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The Hare laughs in his face, taking delight at the thought of humiliating the Tortoise. When the race commences, the Tortoise crawls along, and the Hare is so bored that he decides to take a little nap to kill time, so that he may wake later and tease the Tortoise at the finish line.  Except:  the Tortoise wins.

And so it is in life, that slow and steady gets it done.  Quick-thinking humans with high IQs have a constant temptation to think of themselves as having an edge because they happen to be intelligent.  In fact, when agility is not appreciated as a responsibility, it can become a curse (smart people sometimes become easily bored.)  This fable activates an essential truth:  it’s those little things we do well everyday that make the most positive difference.  Consistency! The image of a tortoise crawling past the finish line is a powerful one.

3.  Fable for Success: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Mischievous tailors and weavers convince an Emperor that the new outfit he ordered is complete.  The Emperor, not wanting to be shamed or seemed stupid, convinces himself that he sees the wardrobe, and wears it proudly in the parade.  All the minister and subjects plays along, fearful that they’re the only ones missing the point, when finally a young child says simply, “But he wears nothing at all!”  The Emperor feels compelled to keep pretending anyway, in order to save face.

This fable activates the energy of authenticity. And it has never been so timely.  In this age of celebrity, it seems a constant temptation to value something simply because everyone else seems to. Success comes that much more quickly when you strive to see the world with fresh eyes:

 
There you have it, the 3 fables that can help you achieve greater success.  What fables as a child do you most remember?  Which were your most favorite?  Please let me know in the comments section below!