Whether you are happy with what you have or unhappy because of what you don’t have, you have the same things. We spend so much time looking right and left rather than looking inward and then outward.
Basically, each of our lives can be seen as if we were running in our own lane as runners do on a track. There are lines on either side of us that we must not step outside of, but what we do in our own lane is what our life is all about.
Following this analogy, we each spend too much time looking at what is going on to our right and to our left. We play the comparison game. We don’t have to look far to say, “At least I am doing better than so and so,” or “I wish I could do as well as that person.” There will always be someone ahead of you in life and there will always be someone behind you. Accept this as a fact of life.
If life is done right we should look inward and then outward. Because your race of life is unique. You are an only edition. You were made special and different than every other one of the 7.8 billion alive today.
I believe that the more you compare, the less likely you are to be accomplishing what you need to be accomplishing...and there are things in this world that only you can accomplish. Comparing yourself to someone who is behind you might make you slow down in your journey because you are ahead. Comparing yourself to someone ahead of you might make you slow down in your journey because you can’t ever catch the leader.
What I am saying is start with who you are and what you have and then accomplish what you need to be accomplishing. If you spend time looking inward, then you are self assessing what you have been blessed with. We need to begin by looking within ourselves before we can change the world outwardly.
So what does all of this have to do with being a hero? What is a hero? If we focus on this question together we could come up with many different, but correct, definitions. A hero might be a person who overcomes major adversity, a person who sets an impeccable role model for our youth, a sports star who excels in his sport, or a person who does a selfless act in a time of crisis.
What characteristics make someone a hero to you?
It is important to have heros...individuals whom we look up to and who motivate us to fly higher. Individuals are heros who add value to the lives of others because of choices they make. I think it is often easier to be a hero to a child than to an adult.
So for purposes of today, let me define a hero as one who takes the God given gift set he or she has been given and uses them for the benefit of others.
Let me break this concept out and tie this into the concepts addressed earlier in this column. A hero recognizes that he has been blessed with whatever is inside him. She focuses on what she has been gifted with and not what she might wish she has.
Life has a way of finding us right where we are. Wherever you are in your journey of life, I believe you made an appointment to be there. As a matter of fact, you can’t be anywhere else right now than where you are.
Are you grateful for what you have been equipped with or are you miserable because of what you don’t have? A hero doesn’t spend a lot of time focused on super powers he was not given. Have you ever heard Spiderman complain because he can’t make himself invisible? Or Superman complain because his weakness is Kryptonite? These heros assess the powers given to them and they take full advantage of their powers to do good things for others.
There are far more gifts out there you have not been blessed with than those you contain within you. Right now you have the power to do acts that connect your gifts with others who can benefit from them.
You have the superpower to be a hero.
Without looking left or right, what is it that is within you that you have been blessed with? When is the last time you have touched a person’s life with that gift? Looking into the future, are you choosing to maximize your talents for the benefit of others?
Are you leveraging who you are and what is within you to help make the world a better place to live for others?
My challenge to you today is to choose to be a hero. You don’t have to stop a speeding train or jump over a tall building. All you have to do is to focus on what you have been given, be grateful for it, ask yourself the question, what do I have that can be used to benefit others, and then take action using your gifts for the good of others.
You have the power to add value to the lives of every person you come into contact with. A hero doesn’t have to save a community from a bad guy or pull a damsel in distress out of the window of a burning building.
A hero is one who reads to a young child, who buys a meal for one who is hungry, who plays catch with a child trying to learn a new sport, or who just shares kind words to another who needs to be uplifted.
Were you a hero yesterday? Are you going to be a hero today?
Being a hero starts from within with a recognition of the superpowers you have been given and then manifests itself through adding value to others. Why not choose to be a hero?
Just a thought...
Rick Kraft is a motivational speaker, a syndicated columnist, a published author, and an attorney. To submit comments, contributions, or ideas, e-mail to rkraft@kraftlawfirm.org or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202 - 0850.
