Heroes!

I was furiously pedaling along at the gym, reading a chick magazine when suddenly I read something terribly interesting. Someone famous (lord help me if I can remember who) said something like “Be your own hero in your life”. I continued pedaling and pondered that thought. It’s a pretty interesting one, and I kind of had an Ah-ha! moment with it. That’s kind of what I’ve been going for lately.

Now, believe me, I’m not really going to run around and save kittens, walk grandma’s across the street, and wear spandex tights. But there’s something to be said for saving yourself and doing bold things in your own universe. For some folks, that’s wearing a new color. For others, it’s jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. But there’s that rush of “I did it!” that’s so fantastic to have in your universe, why wouldn’t you strive to do it every day?

Well, because we’re human. We’re mediocre in our desire to relax, eat, sleep, procreate, etc. It takes conscious thought to not do what we always do and strive for something difficult, unique or remarkable in our universe. I find it humorous that most folks(including me) can go on and on about how they really need to relax, yet never spend any time figuring out what exactly it is that makes them relax. I had to do it – I had no idea how to relax. I’m still learning. It’s a life habit, like eating sensibly. Most of us can’t just sit there and automatically relax. We’re not wired for it. We’re used to being hunted by predators, like paying bills, loneliness, and large toothy woodland critters. Hooray for monkeydom! But I digress. The point of this paragraph – it’s hard to be anything more than the spanky monkeys we usually are. You might be a spanky monkey with a nice car, good job, and gorgeous mate. But you’re still a spanky monkey, hiding out from the predators of life and moseying along on the exercise bike.

Ahhh, but to be truly remarkable, both to yourself and others. How does that work? Well, it depends on who sets the bar. If you’re someone else’s hero, you have to spend the time figuring out what their standards are and living up to them. Or you can be your own hero and define your own hero-dom. Are you a hero because you didn’t devour the refrigerator? Got an A in calculus? Saved up for a trip to Uzbekistan? Learned to ride a camel? Sat and meditated? Wrote a book? Big and small, each thing could be a huge achievement.

But don’t heroes have goals? Villains to beat down? Spandex to proudly model? Sure, there’s that mediocrity again. You could give up, slap yourself back down on the couch, and watch other folks pretend like reality TV has anything to do with reality. Sure, you could spend your precious time “doing nothing”. I do it too, sometimes it’s what you need. But is that who you are? Therein lies the rub. If you are what you say and do and eat, what are you saying and doing and eating? If that’s the question, then I’m an overscheduled goofball who tries to be encouraging but sticks her foot in her mouth at times, works out and studies a lot, and eats lots of vegetables, hamburgers, and cheese. Not exactly hero quality yet. Sure I stand up at times, but I get beaten down just as much. I guess the hero-dom comes in the getting back up, going back to the gym, and getting back into class to finish this damn degree for me. Oh, and looking terribly sexy. That’s a nice side benefit to the gym. Hooray!
Or I could be a future attorney in real estate law with a tremendous background in 5 industries, a reputation for kicking ass and solving problems, excellent customer service, and a penchant for creative solutions. I’m a fire breathing, belly dancing future barrister with a sexy smart man in my life, a close knit family, tons of good people as my friends and an ability to have fun wherever I go. So there, I’m a hero!