One of my favourite Disney movies?
Aladdin.
As a child, I’d burn through endless afternoons glued to the box while our trusty VHS player (remember those?) zipped Aladdin, Princess Jasmine and the Genie through Agrabah’s bustling streets.
Let's not forget the palace puppet-master Jafar either.
On the surface, Jafar might come across as a suave and respectable character.
But beneath his silky robes, it’s a different story.
Throughout the movie, Jafar is consumed by fear that his carefully crafted image might crack and his position as the Sultan’s advisor could be ripped away at any moment.
i.e. despite appearances, Jafar is really just a walking bundle of nerves.
That might sound odd for one of Disney’s most notorious supervillains.
Most evil masterminds have their shit together, after all.
But the evidence is plain to see.
Jafar avoids even the slightest risk. For instance, instead of stepping into the Cave of Wonders to find the legendary lamp, he sends poor old Aladdin to do his dirty work for him.
Jafar has a bunch of coping mechanisms to get through each day too. Like his hypnotic cane which mesmerises and manipulates other people (a crutch in every sense of the word).
Jafar also uses his parrot Iago as a source of support, then berates Iago when he does support him. Cue the iconic line “trust me, my pungent friend, you’ll get what’s coming to you”.
Blood-curdling stuff.
Even when Jafar gets hold of the lamp (the very object he’s been seeking all along) he doubles down and keeps scheming to find more power.
Anyway, perhaps we all have a bit of Jafar in us.
A part of us which avoids taking risks, finds ways to cope and needs some reassurance now and again.
A part of us which is Jafar-too-worried about what could happen that we forget about what is happening right now.
Which is why, in the fairy-tale event that Iago had squawked his final tune and I was hired as Jafar’s new side-kick, I’d ask Jafar this:
How’s all this plotting and scheming working out for you, Jafar?
What would happen if you stopped trying quite so hard to make sure everything turns out ok?
And how much easier might things be if you trusted yourself a bit more?
In fact, I’d ask similar questions to quite a few of the successful professionals I know too. Especially those who spend their working lives trying to make sure nothing ever goes wrong.
If you'd like to trust yourself more at work without mentally exhausting yourself in the process, you can find out more here:
https://tomgrundy.coach/trust-me-i-work-here/
To fulfilment,
Tom