What our nation needs is more heroes. What our community needs is more heroes. What our families need are more heroes. There is a shortage of heroes among us. Now, more than ever in the history of mankind, we need heroes among us.
Can you be a much needed hero? Are you worthy of being considered a hero?
All of us need individuals to look up to in our day to day life. We need someone who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. Individuals who rise above. To a child these individuals may appear larger than life. These are people who are placed in a position where they can influence others. Through their positive attributes they can touch and change the world one life at a time.
Many kids pick up a stick and a trash can lid and act out in their imaginary minds killing a fire breathing dragon or a villain with super powers whose sole desire is to destroy the planet. They swing a make believe sword and in the end conquer evil and save the day. When asked what they want to be when they grow up, they may respond “a super hero.” Then they grow up and forget about conquering evil with good.
A hero doesn’t forget this battle as he or she gets older.
Heroes can be broken into two categories. Some people become heroes because they rise up in a single occasion. Others make repetitive choices that are continuously good and right in nature and they rise above by their way of life. Although both categories are important, I think the second is a tougher category of “hero” than the first because it occurs over a substantial period of time.
If I asked you what characteristics a hero possesses or what attributes makes a person a hero, it would be interesting to hear your response. I would expect descriptive words such as “courageous,” “adversity,” “perseverance,” or “selflessness.”
These are good personal traits and are characteristics many heroes display, but none of them are mandatory for a person to become a hero.
All heroes have two things in common, clarity and an irresistible urge to act. Both of these are mandatory elements necessary to create a hero. Although both of these are critical, you cannot get to the second element without having the first, so allow me to focus on the element of “clarity.”
What is clarity?
I will tell you what clarity isn’t. It is not living a life of lukewarm. It is not living a life of excuses. It is not living a life of “it’s not my responsibility.” It’s not living a life of finding fault in others with no accountability of yourself. It is not living life in a fog. It is not walking aimlessly looking for direction.
Many people purposely and consciously choose to live their lives without clarity so that they don’t have to take right action when the circumstances require action to be taken. Because of this, many people are afraid of living with clarity.
When clarity disappears, so does urgency. This can happen on an individual level or on a collective level such as an organization, a community, or a nation.
Heroes typically don’t set out to be a hero. They just do the right thing in a moment of need.
Individuals who become heroes from an event are those who act without thinking. They dive into a frozen river to save a person who is drowning, they jump onto a person who falls onto a subway track to protect them from a train, they sprint into a burning building to rescue a trapped person. In essence, an event hero runs into danger when others are running away.
These heroes when interviewed after the event are asked questions like “Have you always been courageous?” They give responses like “Courage had nothing to do with it, someone just needed help so I took action.” They may even add, “In that situation, it would have been more difficult for me not to act.”
I think of the story of the Good Samaritan told in the Bible at Luke 10:25. After two members of the clergy walked by a man beaten and dying in the roadway, a stranger from Samaria stops and renders aid. I think if the media at the time had interviewed him afterwards, he would have simply said, “What’s the big deal...the beaten man needed help and I helped him.” The Samaritan had clarity in his life.
A hero acts regardless of the consequences.
It is Martin Luther King, Jr. sacrificing his life because of his clarity of a person not being discriminated against because of the color of his skin. It is Jesus Christ loving those who hated him even asking their forgiveness while they were killing him with a painful death on a cross. Both Dr. King, Jr. and Jesus had clarity. They acted regardless of the consequences eventually costing both their lives.
But heroes also exist in our daily lives even though they often go unrecognized. It is a person on an out of state business trip who has the opportunity to have an extramarital relationship and exits the situation because of their commitment to their family. This man has clarity in his life. It is the employee who is handling unreported cash and counts every penny and turns it in to his employer. This employee has clarity in his life.
A hero can walk into any situation and see what needs to be done. He or she sees a wrong that needs to be righted. It can be as big as a war or as small as a relationship. A hero does the right thing at the right time in the right way.
The second element necessary for a hero is the urge to act. Having clarity alone doesn’t impact anyone outside you unless you take action on your clarity. But if you have no clarity in your life, you cannot not act. With clarity in your life, action will occur without you having to think about it.
The irresistible urge to act will occur to implement the clarity in your mind.
My challenge to you is to be a hero. Live your life with clarity and then take action on your clarity. I read a sign in a store recently that said “Find something you believe in so much that you would die for, then live for it.” Wow...an interesting twist on choosing what is important in your life.
There are many crossroads ahead for you. If you have clarity in your life before you get to the crossroads, you will make the right decision when you choose which direction to move. These could be spiritual decisions, family decisions, employment decisions, individual decisions. These decisions will be the defining moments in your life. Typically you will not control when these moments occur, but you will control how you respond and you can be prepared in advance.
Live your life with clarity and the irresistible urge to act and be a hero...the choice is entirely yours. I believe there is a need for a hero in every environment you are in. You have been called for this time.
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.
