Castle Moats Helps To Defend. What Moats Defend You?

A moat is a deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle, fort, or town, typically filled with water and intended as a defense against attack.

Photo by Norbu Gyachung on Unsplash

This is Mont Saint-Michel in France. Is this image familiar?

No!

Ok, let me give you some hints.

Disney.

No?

Corona.

Still no?

Come on. Now, the final one.

Rapunzel.

Sorry guys. If you are still not able to identify this, you have missed something beautiful in your life.

I am talking about the 2010 Disney movie Tangled. The fortress of Mont Saint-Michel served as an inspiration for the castle in this famous movie on the island of Corona (ask your daughter and she will tell you how beautiful the castle was!).

Source: cntraveler.com

Mont Saint-Michel is one of the most beautiful places in the world and one of the most visited places in France.

So what else this castle is famous for?

The island on which Mont Saint-Michel castle was built remained unconquered during the Hundred Years’ War between the English and the French. A small french army defended a full attack by the English in 1433. During the hundred years’ war, the Kingdom of England made repeated attacks on the island but were unable to seize it. (Source: Wikipedia).

The small french army was not braver or better equipped or had some magical powers but they were able to defend the castle because of just one huge natural advantage.

The castle sits on a floating island (quite literally). The island on which the castle was built experiences high tide a couple of times during the day. The high tide waters can reach up to 14 meters. And this high tide used to cover the only pathway to the island helping the local soldiers to defend themselves from the English. This means that at all times except the times of low tide, the island is surrounded by a natural “moat” of the high sea.

So, the only time the French army had to put their energy against the English soldiers was during these low tides and that they did successfully.

A simple natural “moat” helped one army to defend its castle, its island, and its land from a mighty another army.

I interpret these “moats” as a defense mechanism. Under that lens, I assume that almost all the castles in the world have their own moats. Either they are on extreme heights or are built at a difficult to reach place or they have challenging entry gates or certain tricks are used to confuse the enemy and so on. They all are trying the same thing. “Build defense”.

Your mind is one castle. And you need “moats” to defend your mind from negativity, distractions, and unproductivity.

A constant flow of negative news, mobile distractions, unproductive habits, and constant chatter, drains your energy and impacts your mood. If you too can build “moats” around you, it can help to keep off these negativities and you can experience a big shift in your productivity instantly.

The moats should be simple and should be easy to build. Initially, they will be tough to build, implement and your mind will throw tantrums but once you stick to your guns, the benefits can be huge.

One of the moats which I often use to increase my productivity is to keep my mobile phone behind my laptop once I reach office. “Out of sight, out of mind”. And when I do this my unlock counts and my screen time reduces by 10X.

This is just one of the examples. Let me share some more practical moats which you can build around you and I promise, your positivity and productivity index will show a huge upshift right from day one.

1. De-activate your phone notifications: You must have read this numerous times but still that urge to constantly stay in touch with the world stops you to do the right thing. Try a simple experiment. Just de-activate one notification each day for the next 7-days. That’s it.
2. Keep your phone away for sometime after reaching office and when you come back home: If someone needs you urgently, they will find a route. If you need someone urgently, do the same.
3. Stand during your meetings: A simple and easy moat to ensure everyone ends the meeting on time and the discussions don’t take a detour.
4. Learn to say a gentle “No”: Try this and you will fall in love with it. The strongest moats of them all!
5. Listen to audiobooks or podcasts while you drive — Probably the best moat you can create to ward off the traffic noise or the unnecessary chatter from your fellow colleagues linked to politics, weather, and office. Why not talk about productivity and positivity instead?
6. Keep unnecessary noise off — While on the bus or train, I use the brain.fm app. Another moat which helps me keep off the unnecessary noise and stay concentrated on my reading and writing.
7. Reduce added sugar — One of the most essential moats you need in these modern times. Do this and immediately your energy levels will improve.
8. Limited television time — When at home why not spend some time reading or having a conversation with your family or playing with your kids or investing in self-growth?
9. No NEWS — Wow! I am so looking forward to this moat.
10. Fasting — There are several religions that follow this simple technique to rest their digestive system once in a few days. A nice moat to have under your belt.

Let us create a few moats around us. Ward off habits and things that are pulling us back and not helping us achieve the highest of our capabilities. These are just a few ideas and if you have something to share please drop me a message and we can explore them together.

I hope that by building these simple and easy moats, you can help yourself move towards enhanced productivity and more positivity.

Thanks for reading.

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Self-development is for everyone. Once you start picking these small improvements and add them to your daily life, the results will be huge. Creating “Moats” around you will help you win the daily wars against negativity and unproductiveness.

Keep moving, keep making these tiny and insignificant shifts to your lifestyle and soon, you will see a new YOU!

Join us at the “Be Better Bit-By-Bit” platform to experience an innovative and effective way of self-improvement. Through this platform, I try and create daily activities that let you explore the world of personal development. Please drop me a message and I will add you to the WA group “Be Better Bit-By-Bit”. Join a bunch of enthusiastic and vibrant people who have in a very short period of time discovered a new-self and noticed a stark difference in their attitude. You can also follow us on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin (just search for “Be Better Bit-By-Bit”).