Being the Hero of Your Own Life
Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~ Carl Gustav Jung
Our goal of human experience is to transform ourselves from beings who seek to attain power to beings who seek to be empowered. To seek to be empowered is the sign of a Hero. If you want to be different, to have different or to do different, you are a Hero seeking empowerment over your life.
What is your definition of a Hero? Webster’s Dictionary defines a hero as ‘one that shows great courage.’ When you hear the word Hero, what comes to mind? Western civilization has many models of the Hero. We have super heroes like Superman and Batman, and every country has its own war heroes. There are social heroes like Mother Theresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and sports heroes. There are heroes in literature as well as our own personal heroes.
How would you define a hero? Heroes are often thought of as men of great courage, who take great risks and sacrifice themselves for the greater good. The Hero’s Journey is considered a difficult and dangerous journey undertaken by only the strongest and bravest. My definition is very different. I define a hero as any person who hears a call to change and answers that call, regardless of what that change is. It takes great courage to look at your life and decide to make a change. Many spend their lives stuck in their own story of why their life is not working and never step outside of the story long enough to even dream that they can have or be or do something different. The Hero of my definition sees a problem or an opportunity and seeks a change, which is empowerment.
Take a moment and think. If you were a hero, which one would you be? What qualities of that hero inspire you? I have asked groups of people these questions and am amazed at the depth of their answers and the qualities they admire. I would be Wonder Woman. She is strong, intelligent and beautiful—a strong female archetype. Her idea of justice is achieved through love, kindness, compassion, strength and fairness. Empowered within herself, she seeks to empower others. She also has an invisible plane and a Lasso of Truth…just to make the journey more fun. So who would you be?
Who are the heroes in your life? Who inspires you, teaches you, and challenges you to be more? My children are my heroes. They are four different people, living very different lives, but they all have one thing in common. Each has an absolute knowing that they can achieve their dreams. Many times I have seen one of them make a decision to have something different in their life and then go about allowing it to happen. It never dawns on them that their dream will not come true; to them achieving their goals is as natural as breathing. They inspire me to be the same…to create from my desires and allow those desires to manifest in my life.
So what are the qualities that you so admire in your heroes? I invite you to take those qualities and turn them into commands. Those are the qualities that you desire to awaken and activate within you.
Tony Robbins said “The only thing that keeps you from having what you want in life is the story you tell yourself about why you cannot have it.” If you are tired of your story, you are being called to make a change, to take a journey. You are being called to the Hero’s Journey. This is not the first journey you’ve taken either. You already know how to do this. It is hard-wired into your DNA. Every time you decide to make a change in your life, you take the Hero’s Journey.
This Hero's Journey, this heroic quest is about saying ‘yes’ to yourself and, in so doing, becoming more fully alive and more effective in the world. It offers great rewards: the capacity to be successful in the world and the opportunity to share your gifts with others.
When you realize that there are no outside forces that can determine your destiny and when you stop looking outside of yourself for success or joy or happiness, you will find that Heroic Self within. You will reveal your true self, your Heroic Self, and you will find yourself back home again, knowing yourself for the first time.
A Hero lies within you….waiting……..
If you are interested in listening to the free mp3 recording of Being the Hero in Your Own Life, please contact Bonnie at bonnie@inner-resources.net
