Awakening Your Inner Hero

I‘ve been blessed over my career as a counselor, life coach, leadership trainer and team builder to have been able to work with many high-level athletes, both at the collegiate and professional levels. Many are long-distance runners. Flagstaff, Arizona, where I lived for 50 years, is often considered to be the running capital of the world. Its 7,000-foot elevation is a huge draw to dedicated athletes who strive to perform at their best. It’s been a joy to work with these folks.

How are you and I related to the very best runners in the world? It is all about the daily task of improving. Each of us, at our highest level, wishes to become the best we can be…at life.

One of the teams I have been privileged to work with is the Northern Arizona University Swimming and Diving team. They have won 10 consecutive Western Athletic Conference Championships and they keep getting better. One of the questions I ask in our early teambuilding sessions is, “Why are we here today?” After a short pause, a swimmer will raise her hand and say something like, “to help us get better.” This is a pretty obvious answer for these young, highly competitive athletes.

Then I ask the next question, “Why do human beings of all ages, whether athletes or not, have this urge to improve?” There is always a longer pause after this provoking question. Hmmm.

This is our topic today. …

The primary answer, but not the only one, is that the opposite of getting better is regression. One of the hardest rules of life is: When we are not elevating, growing and learning, then we are declining incrementally and too often unconsciously.

Take a deep breath.

This is one of our most essential life-supporting rules that everyone is closely tied to.

I have met physically disabled people who exercise regularly. Each one acknowledges that if they didn’t, they would soon be unable to get out of bed in the morning. Regression would happen quickly.

This essential rule of life is more obvious in some areas than others. But we can clearly see it in our own teeth-cleaning habits, our car checkup patterns and our house-cleaning frequency. Consistency allows us to keep rolling forward smoothly and go even higher. It is an essential key to life that we often forget to take along on our journeys.

Here are three life tools that when practiced consistently, will improve many more lives than just your own. Each one requires our deliberate attention in order to keep refining our ever-refinable selves.

My list:
The first one might seem obvious, but it is easily overlooked. We must say it to ourselves routinely:

I will dedicate my life to being the best person I can be. This statement is a solemn pledge that reminds us to never stop growing. We benefit from this daily reminder, so please, repeat: I will continue to dedicate my life to being the best person I can be.
Respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. When we react to what someone says or does, this rarely give us a positive result. Better to not even respond than to unthinkingly react. Our old reaction habits can be refined. It requires consistent effort and never happens overnight. These patterns have been around for generations. Sincere apologies help a ton when we realize our insensitive reaction may have hurt someone … even when we think we’re right.
Fake it till you make it. Some of you know this one from our 12 Step Recovery Programs. Here is the question: Which is better? Do the correct, kind thing even if it doesn’t feel natural, or do the more hurtful one because it feels “sincere?”

Our journey to be our best person requires all we’ve got. We must lovingly and vigilantly overcome old habits in order to travel along our highest pathway. Blessings on your high-altitude journey.

– Burt Gershater is a local counselor, leadership trainer, speaker and writer. He can be reached at info@burtgershater.com

This article appears in The Source Weekly December 5, 2024.