A happy life naturally flows from this state of being…
There are things that limit, enslave and subdue us. Unless we overcome them, we will not grow.
There are things that inspire, empower and liberate us. Unless we master them, we will not grow.
The movement between those two states of is the central topic of all human stories from Homer to Spielberg. We spend our lives as both spectators of other people’s stories or heroes of our own stories.
At the end of the day, a happy life flows from spending more time as the hero and less time as the spectator.
Heroes dare greatly. Spectators fantasize greatly.
Heroes dream of victory. Spectators obsess over failure.
Heroes grow in character. Spectators stagnate.
Heroes change the world.
Spectators post on social media how they would do it better if they were heroes.
Theodore Roosevelt was right.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Heroes are always flawed, what makes them heroes is stepping in the arena in the first place.
We all need you to spend less time as a spectator of other people stories and step into the arena as the hero of yours.