“A good life is one hero journey after another.”
— Joseph Campbell
I don’t know about you, but I live to be inspired. I love surrounding myself with people that really motivate me to be the best version of me; to align with the truth of my soul. I think we need it. We love a sense of structure and purpose and meaning, a higher reason than merely surviving or getting more stuff.
There’s an exercise I love to do with people that helps with finding that for yourself. It’s super insightful and rewarding if you choose to take a moment and do it.
List all the people you respect and admire. Everyone you want to learn from, hang out with, be inspired by. Everyone – living and dead, in your circles or admired from afar. Your role models and heroes.
Then …
Go deeper and ask: “Why?”. “What is it about this person that I respect and admire most?”. In other words, what are the personality traits and characteristics that I admire and respect about this person?
Don’t skip – this is the crucial step.
Here you’re starting to separate out the value and the virtue from the person. Your mission is not about emulating or copying a person as a whole, which we do so easily as humans, but recognising what they inspire within you and becoming more of that.
In a world of, “What Would Jesus/Buddha/Kobe Bryant/Elon Musk do?” – of trying to follow someone else’s path – you’re getting clear on who you wish to be. You’re defining what success is for you, on your terms – and this is SO key. Nothing fits and feels right like discovering and walking your own path.
So, next – look at these traits and characteristics, and prioritise them. Which are your top three?
The fact is you already have these traits, to some degree. You do. Otherwise you would not be able to see them. Take one hero and a thousand people will see a thousand things reflected back at them. As Anais Nin perfectly said, “We do not see the world as it is, we see the world as we are”. What you see is who you already are.
Can you become more? Of course, and this is what it’s all about. The question then becomes, “How?”.
How can you get more of these virtues and traits that you admire most?
Ask yourself, “What’s one small step to you getting more of ‘x’ and of ‘y’?”.
Now go and do that one small step to more. Constantly prioritise these virtues and traits, and create another small step. Then you have an actual chance of following through and becoming them.
Makes sense right?
Identifying and attempting to live up to a higher standard is so important to us, deep in our beings. It makes us come alive, it gives us a grounding in meaning and purpose, it helps us avoid stress and struggle.
Therefore take the time to get clear on what this is for you, find a way of prioritising it each and every single day. It’s a recipe for a deeply fulfilling life. But you gotta clear the time and space to do it and follow through with it. When we get busy and stressed it’ll be the first thing to be forgotten – ironically when we need it the most. So don’t let that happen.
To finish, consider this:
Pick one of your heroes. Think about the impact just one person has had on you.
Now consider that you are also “just” one person.
By focusing on what’s truly important to you, you can make an absolute difference to everyone else. You become a true lighthouse – deeply satisfied within your experience of life, able to ride out the toughest storms of life, and a guide to all. And if that’s not motivation to follow through, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, as always, hope this is useful. Let me know!
Go well!
Arjuna