Have you ever considered having an artist paint a portrait of you whilst you were all dressed up in historical finery and taking on the mindset and personality of a famous military leader such as Napoleon Bonarparte?
Art was one of the primary ways that the rich and powerful would control their public image. Statues, portraits and larger than life artistic commissions that portrayed the individual in the likeness that was sought after.
This shaping and moulding of a carefully constructed image and their preservation through the generations is exactly how we now visually perceive individuals from the past. Did Napoleon Bonarparte look remotely like the glorified idealised figure we see in David's portrait?
Through the passage of time the image and the reality blend and become one. They are indistinguishable from the other. This then gets reinforced through the media in all it's forms. Oliver Stone in his recent film production of Alexander of Macedon drew heavily on the surviving portraits and images of Alexander. The images themselves mostly were commissioned works and even copies of originals that were made after Alexander's lifetime. Alexander was renowned for taking the fight to his enemy and overwhelming the opposition through an audacious full frontal cavalry charge. In a single maneuver he would defeat and drive off the enemy cavalry and expose the enemy centre to his heavy cavalry.
So the distinction between reality and that which is approved and authorized becomes blurred. It intermingles and ultimately they become one and the same.
For me the thought of posing for a picture is in itself a drawn out unpleasant experience. It brings out the self-conscious self-talk that goes along lines like this. Oh come on, get a move on with it. Yet another picture, how many more must we do. Am I going to blink in this one like many a previous time? It's not natural putting on a smile for camera, I'm sure they realize this is artificial and fake. On and on it goes.
Would I look funny riding a horse, my goodness it's going to be an excruciating process. Just being dressed up and at the same time having to manage the life force of a horse will require so much attention and effort. There's the balancing on the horse, having a posture that conveys calm dignity and to then add the need to control the horse so it's standing still, information overload.
Just the thought of that situation in the head is bringing forth a torrent of anxious thoughts. What if this happened, what if I don't get it right, how uncomfortable is it going to be, how do I know if the horse and I are going to bond and communicate well? And all this from the thought of having to get on a horse and lead it into unchartered terrain.
Where in your life have you gone deep into the unfamiliar, way into the discomfort zone and been floundering just from having the thought of going into new territory? And how did it work out for you? Does that trepidation and nervousness result in you deciding not to do that which was asked and expected of you? Did it then become a limiting belief where you tell yourself that that is something which you simply could never do?
I know that in my youth time and time again the prospect of leading from the front and being the cavalry leader would so terrify me that I would disengage and not even be in the fight. The white flag of surrender would have been raised before even the outbreak of combat.
Not only did I see myself as looking funny riding a horse the thought was downright ridiculous. I was so in my mind and torn by doubt and negative self-image that this was one horseless rider that had been unmanned from the start.
In my imagination I could be this invincible military warrior king and equally my mind had the power to strike fear and terror into me in a way that made a mockery of the earlier bravado.
And so at the end of the day, in the moments that most matter for you which portrait will be brought into existence? Will it be the heroic portrait of an all conquering Alexander the Great or will it be one of rout and disarray?
Ewan Wong
Speaker, NLP Trainer and Mentor
http://ewanwong.com/.
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