What's your Princess & the Pea Idiosyncrasy?
And do you even recognise it or them?
If you’re of a certain age, you would remember the children’s fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson called ‘The Princess and the Pea’.
The story goes that a Prince wanted to marry a REAL princess and he traveled the world trying to find her. One night a girl turns up at the castle door, wet and bedraggled from the storm outside claiming to be a ‘true’ princess.
The Queen decided to test her, because she didn’t want her son marrying a woman who was not a ‘true princess’.
She placed an uncooked pea under her mattress and then piled 20 more on top to see if she would sleep well or not (hence the cover image like the one below).
The girl did not have a good night and in the morning complained at how uncomfortable it was. All hailed her a true princess and they got married and lived happily ever after!
Phew!
What’s your ‘Princess and the Pea’ equivalent?
For me, I need my pyjamas/nightie to be perfectly flat and straight under my back when I am lying in bed, trying to go to sleep.
I’m a back sleeper and if there is a wrinkle of any kind I can’t relax!
It might seem like a little thing but it makes a huge difference to how good a night I have.
So after getting into bed I wriggle and move around until my clothing is nice and flat. Then I can start to prepare to go to sleep and not before.
Sometimes when it takes a little while to get it ‘just right’, (yes call me Goldilocks!), I will laugh at myself and wonder if I am being totally neurotic or not.
But then I think about ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and know that it’s ok!
There are always things we, as individuals, are pedantic about.
Just watch Rafael Nadal on a tennis court and you can see multiple ‘princess & the pea’ moments for every game, let alone the whole match!
Having these little things we do isn’t so bad as long as we are aware we are doing them, and we don’t let them control our lives.
Do you recognise it? or them?
Take some time this week to think about the things you do repeatedly, almost on autopilot.
There are many things we do each day, that are the same way day in day out.
When taking a shower in the morning, do you always do things in a certain order?
I brush my teeth, wash my face, then wash my body.
If I change this up, like wash my body first it ‘feels’ weird!
But this routine is done by me on autopilot because I have done it day in, day out without thinking for a long time.
If you do Yoga, the instructor will often tell you to fold your hands, or cross your legs the opposite way to what you naturally did the first time you were instructed to do it.
We then have to actually think about doing it the opposite way.
What is your ‘Princess and the Pea’ idiosyncrasy?
Do you want to keep it? or is it time to make a change?
Think about that this week.
As we seek excellence in all we do, I want to share with you what I’m up to each week. It will keep me accountable to you, my readers and it will also help me to reflect on what I’ve done over the previous week.
➡️ This Week’s Progress
I have been working on my website this week and producing an email course. I also ordered a new diary from Erin Condren that will start July 1st and it’s fabulous! I can’t wait to start using it.
➡️ This Week’s Reading
I purchased a new book on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn by John Guy and Julia Fox and I can’t wait to start diving into it!
📝 - Latest Issue- Traveling Through History Newsletter
Issue 46: European Cities - Barcelona, Spain
🎙️- Tilt Your Business Podcast - This Week’s Episode
No episode this week
🎙️- Business on the Bloc Podcast - This Week’s Episode
EP 83: Blowing the Whistle on OpenAI
Michelle is a Writer, Marketer, Content Entrepreneur, Historian (Mst Oxon) and mother of 3 boys.
After 25 years in business and as the ‘Content Marketing Queen’ for over 13 years, she has helped countless small businesses understand and develop their content strategies and focus on a customer first approach.
On International Women’s Day in March 2024, Michelle hung up her crown so that she could be a Queen Maker to inspire and assist women over 40, rise up to be the Queens they were born to be.
At Excellence Takes Courage we will navigate together what it takes to achieve excellence, with courage.
Follow me on these social media platforms:
Website - incoming…. stay tuned!
Please help me build my list by sharing this newsletter with your friends.
If you love history and traveling then you might like to follow my weekly Substack newsletter on History Travel - Traveling Through History.