Who are the heroes in your life? Perhaps it is a historical figure, a character from literature, or your family member. Whoever represents your values and ideology, they are qualified to be your hero.
Everyday Heroes
The media lately often talks about everyday heroes from those who make a small difference in their hometowns to those who are on the frontline, fighting the pandemic. Those who bring food to those who are infected or who take an old neighbor to a vaccine appointment. It seems that anyone can be a hero.
Who Is Your Hero?
Stop and think about who makes a positive difference in people’s lives around you? Who is worth your respect and admiration? What are the qualities of your heroes? Most likely they are fearless, strong, and have a great sense of moral integrity. Do they make you feel safe? Do they motivate you to do better?
Why We Need Heroes?
One of the most common reasons is for inspiration or hope. They inspire us to be better and do good, or they give us hope that things will get better.
Additionally, they are role models reminding us of what it means to be good. And lastly, we need heroes in our daily lives to protect us. Our parents, siblings, or family members are heroes because they protect and take care of us or our other family members who need a helping hand. We know that we can rely on them.
In difficult times, we need inspiration and hope. With heroic role models, you get inspiration that you can conquer anything that comes your way and do more by helping others.
What Would We Do Without Heroes?
Life would be too pessimistic and difficult to live. When we have heroes around us who are there to protect us, we feel like the sense of threat disappearing and things become easier. Without some role models who are conquering the world, it would be difficult to imagine that those things are even possible. Even if our heroes are in books and movies, that gives us the inspiration of what’s possible even if it’s only written and/or presented on the big screen.
Heroes Make Ordinary Folks Feel Powerful
When faced with a threat or morality issue, if we think about our heroes, we are more likely to do the right thing. What would my hero do? We often ask that question in a difficult situation or we are prompted to ask ourselves what someone wise and brave would do in times when it’s not easy to make choices in life.
Heroes inspire us, we feel like we are powerful and like we can be heroes too. During morality threats, we are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors. The extreme example is what would you choose as your last meal – most likely it wouldn’t be a salad.
In every day less stressful and dramatic examples, we are more likely to engage in unhealthy habits during difficult times. It’s a defense mechanism that’s not the healthiest way to deal with the issue. However, when we choose to ask ourselves what our heroes would do, we are more likely to engage in healthier behaviors.
Can We Be Heroes?
The answer to that question is simple and easy – yes. Our ideal self is the hero that we need. We need and have other heroes in our lives that we know or don’t know but the hero inside us is the ideal version of ourselves.
What would an ideal version of me do?
The answer to this question in any difficult situation would be the same as the answer to the question ‘what would my hero do?’.
Conclusion
In a conclusion, we can use heroes as guides and inspiration for what we aspire to be or what kind of world we want to live in. Let’s remember that our heroes had their inspirations as well. We can be or maybe we already are an inspiration for others as well. We most definitely should strive to be an inspiration for others.
