Everyone who knows me – who really knows me – knows I love to write. Some of you (probably 3 of you) even know I create fiction stories too; art that may parallel life, in a sense, with a couple life lessons behind it and woven throughout.
I’m at my happiest and most content when I write and when I can create. These “stories” come to me rather quickly and the smallest thing can inspire me to create a complete fictional journey of 75,000 words.
But even if you’re not a writer and you enjoy reading, you know that EVERY story needs a hero otherwise there’s no story to tell. With no hero we have no focus and no need for a goal to look out for. The hero is our guide and our inspiration that keeps us reading and hoping for a great outcome. We gravitate toward the stories where we can relate to the hero in some sense, as if a part of ourselves is inside that literary adventure. We do this without thinking about it, it’s a natural response that we don’t need to dwell on.
Our hero isn’t lways a Superman, or the wisest that’s ever lived. Many times our hero is normal with some fractures and small imperfections within his or her character. We relate to these flaws. We need these flaws so we can identify ourselves to this hero. And we can spot this hero immediately, not because they are the center of attention, but because they’re the ones facing the test of their lives.
People complain when they go through things: I didn’t ask for this, it’s not fair, why me?
My response? Why NOT you?
Are you so special that bad things should automatically flee from your sight? Have you achieved this upper echelon of greatness that everything you’re near should be perfect forever?
I’ve even heard people try and choose their trial: But why did this have to happen? why couldn’t it be something else?
Seriously? Life isn’t Burger King.
Did you ever read a story where the hero has nothing to do? No, you haven’t. You know why? BECAUSE THEN IT’S NOT A STORY!
Hero’s aren’t born, they’re created. The trials we go through and the tests of life give birth to the hero. The hero isn’t doing a happy dance when he’s trying to save the world from a deadly virus outbreak. He’s fighting, struggling and pushing his way out. He keeps going until everyone is saved. He gets shot in the leg and punched in the face and still KEEPS GOING. Why?
Because he’s the hero. Hero’s are created…
It’s out of the dust and the ashes that we see what remains AFTER the battle. It’s the battle and the scars from battle that create the hero. If there was no battle then there’s no hero. If you run from the battle, there’s no hero. Only being in battle and coming out the other side MAKES the hero.
Hearing the bad report and choosing to go forward makes the hero. Burying your loved ones and still being able to press forward and comfort others makes the hero. Losing everything you have and rebuilding again births a hero.
No one ever reads the story about the guy sitting on his couch waiting for the world to end or the guy that gave up fighting because it was too hard. We read about the hero. We want to live his story with him and share in his victory. We want the climactic ending where he pushes himself up from the dirt with sword pointed to the sky shouting because he slew the dragon and saved the land.
These are the stories we read. We have to because we all have a hero inside of us that’s waiting to come out. We all have a battle we’re facing and it’s our story. We all have the choice to be the hero of that story… you just have to fight for it.
Becoming Invincible 