Who Are Your Heroes?

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes." - Benjamin Disraeli

Heroes are defined in many ways. The word is derived from the Greek word hērōs, which is "a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability." Most people who are labeled as heroes would be the last person to define themselves in that manner.

The more modern definition might be "someone admired for their achievements and noble qualities." This would me going beyond what would be expected of the everyday and normal course of life. As Will Rogers put it, "We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."

It is others to create the label of hero, but for us to act in heroic ways.

Everyday in little and big ways our actions can go unnoticed by others. The single mother caring for three small children, struggling to make a life for them. She is certainly a hero to them. Or the person who donates their time or money to different causes. Always seeming to be there to help others.

The small things you do are often the ones for which people admire you. Most likely you will not even realize or expect the admiration. It comes down to having intention to "do good" in your life. This is something Dr. Wayne Dyer called "The power of intentions."

A way we can live our life.

I have been asked, "If everyone is a hero, what distinguishes them from anyone else?" A valid point and maybe we banter about the term too easily. Yet my first statement is "heroes are defined in many different ways." Whether these be societal or personal definitions, neither diminishes the other.

Take as an example stories from The MY HERO Project, which has the intention to enlighten and inspire people of all ages with an ever-growing Internet archive of hero stories from around the world.

A way to thank those who have inspired at the very least, you.

In one of the stories from the website, Andrea in Ireland writes, "My hero is: Mattie. Mattie, it is so hard sometimes to find the words to describe what a truly wonderful and inspirational influence you have had on so many in such a short space of time. I have no doubt that you would have little difficulty expressing the sentiments yourself as you have in all your works, using your combination of seemingly effortless thoughts overflowing with truth and sense and wisdom. I am honoured to count myself among those who shared in your story, and endeavour to bring your message of hope, joy and tolerance to all those who share in mine. God bless little angel. I thank you."

None of us will likely ever know who Mattie is, but a ripple can occur which will effect your life. It will do so in ways we will never be able to trace back to Mattie, but it occurs. The ripple touched Andrea near the center and will effect you by reading those words further out among the ripples.

So clap for those who have done something good in your life.

Continue to do good things and live your life with good intention knowing that to someone else you are their hero. With good intentions, you will live a life that is in many ways heroic. You will begin to realize there are people "sitting on the curb clapping as you go by."

Stay inspired my friends!

Setting Your Foundation

"Setting a firm foundation better prepares us for success." - Dean Sweetman

January 1st, the first day of the year, is quickly fading into the past. That first day of the year is not really much different from the day before. But it is a day which most of us apply a significance to.

A way we as humans process time or events.

So if we view January 1st as a starting point for what we are going to do this year, then we need to start now. Even at this time well into the month of February. If we have not started, now is the time.

We must begin laying a foundation for what the year has to offer.

There will be opportunities which might come our way. There will be experiences encountered and success to achieve. We need the foundation built in order to take advantage of all that can occur in our favor.

When April showers come and May flowers of spring, will you be ready?

If January 1st is our day to start preparing, March 20 which is the Spring equinox, is our time to plant the seeds of change. Again, we must prepare ourselves early before the time to plant becomes too late.

Do not miss opportunity to plant seeds which will change your life.

Planning your foundation early and planting seeds to grow will prepare you for opportunity. The opportunity of rain and growth which sustains you through the long hot days of summer.

Without a strongly rooted vision, growth can not be sustained. Tall harvest of achievement will become a lost opportunity. That leaves us only with another long cold winter to think of what may have been.

Do not wait to begin setting your foundation for a great year.

Start today, start with change and start with belief that this year will be different.

Stay inspired my friends!

Duck and Cover

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ― Benjamin Franklin

What did we think back in the 1950s when the threat of being wiped out by an atomic bomb was close at hand?

We were ready to protect ourselves with a picnic cloth or a school desk.

We have many things to worry about each and every day. So many things we could spend our entire life afraid to come out from behind a locked door. But we have to go on living.

We keep moving forward and try to live a great life.

If we do that, we have truly lived.

Stay inspired my friends.

Our Changing Normal

"There is nothing permanent except change." - Heraclitus

Each of us encounter changes in our lives on a fairly constant basis. Change is really the one thing that seems to remain constant in our life. I have experienced many changes in my lifetime and as such had to adopt a willingness to flow with those changes.

This has been especially true when it comes to my job in the high tech industry. For over 35 years I have managed to remain employed even as the industry continues to evolve rapidly. The last thirty years have been with one company, so suffice to say the young guys are probably putting me into the dinosaur class.

But I am still here, keeping up with the changes.

In all of my year, I have had to adapt as many of you have in your lives. I have paid a personal cost due to changes and decisions made which were not expected. As it is said, one decision begets another, so on and so forth.

Yet all of us survive and push through.

Many times I could have wallowed in a negative attitude, complaining about all that was happening around me. Doing so would have left me lost in a sea of change. To feel you have lost all control can make it difficult to pull out of at times.

You struggle to find one bit of good through the maze of confusion.

And once you find the good, it becomes your focus and the goodness grows. To have a positive attitude helps tremendously and it will guide you through the bad times. It will help you get safely to the other side.

I am reminded of dialog from a movie called Tombstone, in which Wyatt Earp is telling a dying Doc Holliday that all he ever wanted was a 'normal' life. Doc Holliday responds to him by saying, "Wyatt, there is no such thing as a normal life. It's just life."

The same is true in our own life. There is no such thing as a normal life because life will happen around you. That is the normal part of living. How you react and respond to that 'normal' will determine the type of life you live.

Choose to live it well. Choose to live it in a positive way.

Stay inspired my friends!

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

- Charles R. Swindoll -