Did she have it all before she met the Prince?
Yes and yes.
What can we learn from the fairy tale Cinderella and the new movie coming out this month?
- The theme of almost every fairy tale is that a prince on a white horse will sweep us off our feet and we’ll live happily ever after, but waiting for our prince to come and expecting him to make us happy when he does is a recipe for relationship disaster! I call this the “outside-in” approach to happiness and it never leads to true fulfillment. What is the precise formula for generating happiness, success, abundance – and anything else we desire? From the inside-out. We had it backwards!
- In the beginning, Cinderella was definitely not a girl who had it all. And yet, despite being enslaved by an evil stepmother and harassed by jealous stepsisters, she happily played with the forest animals and sang beautiful songs to herself. By making the best of a bad situation—while simultaneously allowing herself to dream of the day it would get better—Cinderella overcame the bleakest of odds and manifested both her prince and her “happily ever after.” She was a perfect example of the Law of Sufficiency and Abundance in action: Be happy and find the positive aspects of life as it is, and then dream, visualize, and look forward to what is coming.
- Only one woman’s foot is a fit for the glass slipper, and she is the only woman the prince will marry. While her evil stepsisters contort themselves in every imaginable way to steal the keys to the kingdom, Cinderella wins the prince’s heart—simply by being herself. Authenticity is so attractive, and creating and maintaining an authentic connection with ourselves is essential to attracting the outcomes we most desire in life.
- In the fairy tale Cinderella, a loving fairy godmother transforms Cinderella’s tattered dress into a magnificent ball gown; her pumpkin into a carriage; and the mice she’s befriended into horses that pull her carriage. A “fairy godmother” is simply a woman who sees others in their highest light and relates to them as the most brilliant, talented, and loving versions of themselves that they are capable of being. The act of deliberately looking for and appreciating all that we love about the people around us brings out the very best in them (and in ourselves), and leads to more fulfilling relationships with co-workers, family members, lovers, and friends.
- Cinderella’s faith in the goodness of the universe is fueled by her belief in love. Although she is terribly mistreated by a wicked stepmother and stepsisters, she clings to the feeling of being deeply loved by both of her deceased parents, and forges the belief that if love found her once, it will find her again—and in the end, of course, it does. There is always a relationship between the beliefs we hold (almost always unconsciously) and the outcomes we produce. As Henry Ford brilliantly observed, “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right.” By shifting any internal belief by even one degree from scarcity to abundance, we drastically change the results we create.
