What is a hero?

Embrace the Hero Within.

What is a hero?

The term hero is tossed around in today’s society so much that I believe we are getting heroes and heroism all wrong. We’re taking away the mystique, the mystery, the mysticism, the spirituality out of being a hero. Instead of the hero being something heroic, we are making the hero into something rudimentary and common. We are taking away the special journey of the hero and the special actions that make the hero and replacing that with something common and ordinary. Heroes are not common and ordinary. Heroes are taking a journey to make a change in both themselves and the world into which they return.

So, what constitutes a hero today? Conformity. Today the term heroism is attached to folks merely following orders. Media toss this term to people simply doing their jobs. You get to be a hero for getting a paycheck and performing a function. Health professionals are heroes. Law enforcement officers are heroes. Teachers are heroes. Soldiers are heroes. Firefighters are heroes. We take professions that have the slightest instance of danger and make that interaction with death and danger what defines a hero.

The idea that what defines heroism is standing against death is nothing special. Everyone, daily stands against death. And we typically do that every day until we die. There is nothing heroic about just facing danger. Life is dangerous. Life is deadly. Life is not an easy thing even in the world of today. There are plenty of dangers that abound in this new savannah that are just as deadly and hard for us to see as the predators from thousands of years ago. Mainly because humans experienced these natural threats for thousands of years and our new threats are less than a thousand years old.

So, if there is nothing special about following orders or facing death, then what makes someone heroic? Is it the qualities of their character? There are many people that do great things with their lives. They are people that we should look to as an example. People that may become our mentors along the journey. BUT, this worship of other people is always a dangerous situation. More times than not, when we place our faith in other folks it is commonly misplaced, misused, and misintended. When we look for something external to make us whole and give us meaning, we lose sight of what truly makes us unique and our journey unique.

Maybe it is not so much the actions BUT within the qualities of heroism that we can define what makes a hero? A hero has a different journey from what the current system with its orders and hierarchy has set into motion. The hero has a responsibility to learn a special knowledge and bring that knowledge back to the current system. The hero has a responsibility to return with the hero’s new knowledge and the hero’s new understanding and integrate these into the system the hero left upon the hero’s return.

So, what is the hero’s journey and how is this journey different from following orders? The journey has five main components. A hero must hear the Call to Adventure and then act upon that call to Begin the Adventure. Once the hero goes forward into the journey, the hero will face a Road of Trials to test the hero’s resolve and transform the hero into someone worthy of receiving the special knowledge, the Ultimate Boon. Finally, the hero must Return with the special knowledge to the beginning or origin of the hero’s journey. These are the main steps that each hero must undertake whether the hero be one from history, from fiction, or from today. Heroes transform not only their self but also aid in the transformation of the system. The hero is not fighting against death, the hero is not following order or orders, the hero is not ever the same as a result of the journey and neither is the system into which the hero returns.

My direction over the next few weeks or however long this takes. Is to take the monomyth’s five key stages and examine how heroes of the past and literature undergo this journey BUT also how we can also undergo this journey. I aim at taking a deeper look at what heroism actually entails and dismiss the ideas of attaching heroism to conformity and order. I aim to make the hero mystery and mystique something unique and personal, something that we can all aspire and inspire within our lives.

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheHeroWithin

Personal Meditation No. 158

“You are not making people angry by your choices. You do not make anyone else anything they are not already.”

Embrace the Within.

I deal with this situation a lot in both my personal and professional life. You probably have this situation as well because there are a lot of us out there trying to change people into something they are not and a lot of us being told that our choices are making other folks feel any number of emotions. You might even have a combination of both of these situations occur simultaneously. I know I have and I just want to assure you that neither situation is a possibility.

I have spoken a number of times about changing people and the only way that happens is internally. And that can be quite frustrating for us in some professions. When you look at how teachers take every child as their own personal success or failure, there is no wonder that most feel the burnout. A lot of what got them into education at first was this idea of changing the world and then they ran into the psychological truth about humans. We can influence and nudge them in certain directions, however, we cannot change them into something they are not. And that certainty about human nature is proven time and time again in psychological study after study, yet, we tend to believe we are the ones that are going to make the change. We adopt this belief of changing others in our professional and personal lives and it leads to countless problems.

Additionally, we cannot feel responsible for the way other people feel about our decisions. We are responsible for how we act and we need to take responsibility for how we act BUT that does not mean responsibility for how others feel about how we act. We cannot control how anyone might react to our choices and that is not our responsibility. Our responsibility lies in making the best choices for our lives and our journey. Does that mean we cannot have empathy? Does that mean we have no attachments? That’s just silly. BUT, ten percent of the folks are going to hate you no matter what you do and ten percent will love you no matter what you do, you have to focus on positively influencing the eighty percent with whom we can move the needle. That other twenty percent is solidly in one camp or the other.

People are not going to change until they choose to change and they choose to change from the influences around them. So, being the person that focuses on your own personal change will influence the change in others. You and I cannot make anyone behave anyway they are not already going to behave BUT we can nudge and influence them into making better choices. And if we truly care about what we’re doing in our own lives then the best instrument of change is to live the example.

We cannot be weapons of change using violence and anger to beat and berate folks into changing. We are not the cops of change. We need to use the compassion and love we gain from working on our own change to influence the change in others. You cannot change anyone BUT yourself. BUT changing yourself can change everything and everyone around you. It can totally change the direction of your life.

Two years ago I was beating and berating the world around me into changing to fit my image. Now I am peacefully spreading the message by working on me. It is not easy or quick BUT it is worth the struggle and time because I deserve to be better.

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain