Tag: Batman

Blogpost, self-reliance

Level Up Your Hero Game

Pete Huryk

We all have a hero living inside of ourselves. The question is not whether it is there. Almost always the question is the type of hero and when does they show up. A hero is defined as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. We all have that possibility within us but not everyone is willing to live the hero life. Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up.

The Stillborn Hero – Just like everyone else, this person has greatness within them but either don’t know it or choose not to use it. These are the saddest people to meet because it’s plain to see that they have more inside. They just can’t or won’t access it.

The Reluctant Hero – This is the person who will only access that higher level of ability when it is forced upon them. They don’t want to do anything special because it’s too much of a hassle. When the circumstances are right, they’ll save the day but they’d rather be in their secret hideout with their sidekick relaxing.

The Self Aggrandizing Hero – Although they do some hero work, they make it sound much bigger than it is. Saving a kitten from a tree somehow gets translated into saving the world.

The Mercenary Hero – I’m not completely sure if this is where they belong on the scale. However these heroes have great abilities that people recognize and laud them for. Unfortunately they come with the understanding that they’ll get compensated for their hero work. They’re not a sucker. The skills that they have are not for free.

The Small Time Hero – This may be my favorite type of hero. Their contributions to the world are nothing spectacular but they consistently show up to do that which is required of them. They save the world one person at a time but do it in stride. They don’t think of themselves as heroes but they definitely are.

The Super Hero – This is the one that we tend to make movies about. While there are no supernatural abilities being thrown around, these are the people that we remember forever. They give something of themselves at such a level that they inspire other people to be a better version of themselves. They might get compensated for what they did but that’s not why they did it. They acted out of selflessness, patriotism, or any other noble cause.

All of these levels of hero have their flaws. Even the super hero in the real world has an addiction to chocolate or some other vice but they act as a hero enough for us to notice.

Each of us is on this spectrum someplace (or maybe I missed some in the middle). Regardless of where you stand at the moment, do your best to level up! There is nothing wrong with staying where you are but if you didn’t notice, the world is hurting at the moment. The world could use a few more heroes. It doesn’t need to be every moment of every day. You can do your hero work in fits and starts. Do it at times where no one expects it. So as you go through your day today, look for opportunities to HERO UP! They’re all around you. Don’t wait for a spotlight in the sky because that’s impractical. Keep your eyes open for the people who need your special skill because they are out there. Villains can take care of themselves, the heroes need to step up for one another.

HERO UP!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance, SoccerLifeBalance

Neither Batman Nor Jüergen Klopp

Pete Huryk

Notice a simple fact. Robin did not name himself Batboy nor Batman Jr. Even when Dick Grayson rebranded himself as Nightwing, it was partially to come into his own. Only when he took over the role of Batman, did he also take on the name. In a fictitious city with fictitious people, a young man understood the need for him to separate himself from him his idol, mentor and hero.

Despite the fact that I am a fan of heroes (super or otherwise), there needs to be caution used by us mere mortals who idolize them. The role of the hero can take on several possible forms. Depending on the circumstance, they can also be counted upon to save those in distress. They can also give us a model to emulate in some way. Both of these roles of the hero have their place in real and fictitious worlds. The onus needs to be on the fan to wear her/his own metaphorical cape.

Although heroes are most well known for saving people, that role creates issues. People who are unable to save themselves are victims. Relying completely upon a hero to save you continuously (Louis Lane) is a strategy that encourages weakness, inaction and dependence. Most people are smart enough to avoid this trap. The perils of the real world for most people are also less sinister than that of a superhero. The supervillains are not around every corner.

Being a model to emulate is a powerful function of the hero. The issue here is that everyone is fallible. Even the superheroes within comic worlds have their foibles. More importantly, no matter how perfect of a model any hero might be, you will never be them. Regardless of your attention to detail or persistence, transmission of consciousness into another body is even hokey in the comic world. So watch YES! Learn YES! Emulate SURE! Worship NO! Deify UH UH!

Coming back to the real world and in particular the soccer world, there are plenty of players and coaches to choose as heroes. On the coach side of things, Jüergen Klopp is the flavor of the month/year. If you chose to do so, you could study all of his interviews, strategies and possibly get into his mindset. You could even get JK screenprinted onto your jacket, hopefully for JUST KIDDING. Despite all of that effort, no matter what you cannot be him. It’s an interesting question to ask, “What would Jüergen Klopp do with my U10 girls team?” An even better question is “What are you going to do with them?” After all of mental posturing that we might do in relation to our heroes, the equation always ends with you being you. All of your thoughts and actions get syphoned through the person that you are.

So rather than spending too much time trying to be someone else, envision the best version of you in the future. Like Serpentor from GI JOE, take the best from your heroes and develop a new version of yourself. As you progress through the process of becoming a better you, remember that you cannot be Jüergen Klopp but maybe you can replace him. That’s a better goal to have because it keeps you in the picture as you. You cannot be Batman nor Jüergen Klopp but you can take pieces from either in order to be the best you.

Be your own hero!

Pete

Blogpost, self-reliance

Creating Your Origin Story

Pete Huryk

Spider-man-origins-1-1024x512They are everywhere at the moment.  With the explosion of the Marvel movies, Silicon Valley startups and overnight superstars plucked from the internet; origin stories are all around us.  All of them, to a certain extent, are made up.  The comic book authors crafted those of the super heroes.  The others that exist in the real world cannot tell the story of every little thing that happened.  So they have to delete and adjust to a narrative that aligns with how they want to be seen by the outside world or by themselves.  Since all origin stories are created in one fashion or another, it may be helpful for your daily life to fashion your own.  Not pluck it out of thin air but rather weave some real events of your life in with a narrative that propels you forward.

My origin story goes something like this.  When I was 12 years old, soccer was definitely my fall sport.  However at that time, the term “travel soccer” had not really grabbed hold.  In fact, this was the first year in which my town participated in what we referred to as “spring soccer”.  My younger brother was going to play for the spring team at his age group and my father was going to help coach.  Unfortunately I had either missed the tryouts for my age group or there just weren’t any.  Regardless, the first day of practice came along for my brother’s team.  They were sharing a field with the team for age group right above mine.  I knew most of the players from school.  Although the team was already formed, I decided that I was going to get onto that team.  At that moment, I did the only thing that I could think of to get the attention of the coach.  I RAN!  Rather than sitting and watching my brother’s practice, I started running laps around the field where they were practicing.    For the entire 90 minute practice, I kept running around the field.  When my father and brother were finished, we packed up and went home.  Some time around 9pm the phone rang.  It was the coach of that older team, they wanted me to play for the team.  That was the beginning of who I became.  Someone willing to go the distance and use unique solutions to problems.

If you notice as you read that story, it all fits together relatively well.  It’s been 30 years since those events and I could not tell you definitively if that story is 100% accurate.  All of those events definitely happened.  However I’m not sure if there was a player who broke their leg, so they needed someone else.  Perhaps the call from the coach came a week later.  In the end, those detail DO NOT MATTER.  What truly matters is that the story fits my beliefs about who I am and who I want to be.  The event was chosen but the story was “created” because I want to see myself in a particular way.  I have millions of other events that have happened in my life.  I could have easily chosen to create my origin story using a huge failure and rehearsed an excuse around why I could never be a success because of “that thing that happened”.  People do it all the time.  The question that is most important for me about origin stories is, does it serve you?  Is your origin story going to make you or break you?

If it is not going to help, then change it!  Your life story is not objective truth.  It is a jumble of memories that have been given varying degrees of clarity and importance.  So decide on a moment in your life that can act as a catapult for the days that are coming.  It doesn’t need to be something from your childhood.  It could be this moment right now!  “I read this great blogpost about origin stories and I didn’t like mine.  So right then and there I decided that I was going to take action.  I….”  One of the main things about life is how you feel about yourself when you are alone and have a moment to reflect.  If you don’t feel good about yourself, then change your story.  Even Darth Vader was able to redeem himself, why can’t you?

Write the story that you want people to read about you!

Pete

self-reliance, Uncategorized

Mediocrity Man

Pete Huryk

lhvmarathon-e1497924664977.jpgHollywood is regularly churning out super hero movies and their sequels. At the moment they seem to be almost a sure thing at the box office. Iron Man, Spider Man, Batman and Captain America all seem to capture the imagination of the people as they pay big movie theater prices to see these super humans. It is obvious that “super” is what the people want to see.

What if there was a hero named Mediocrity Man? He had super powers that were inside of him but he was afraid of them. Any time that he saw himself do something out of the ordinary, he would instantly recoil and deny his abilities. Rather than keeping his secret identity from everyone else, he would hide or deny his powers to himself. What if Clark Kent never changed into Superman? Would you watch that movie? Of course not.

If this hero existed, why would he hide his powers? The reasons would be the same that you or I don’t do the things that would produce greatness.

  • It’s too hard.
  • It will take too long.
  • I might not succeed.
  • Or worse, I might succeed and the people would expect more out of me.
  • I don’t want people to make fun of me.
  • No one in my family, town, state or country has ever done it before, who am I to be first?

Imagine the Earth being filled with superheroes. What if people were getting most out of themselves every single day? What would that look like? I’ve been Mediocrity Man. I’ve traded in my cape for a t-shirt on a regular basis. Feeling comfortable in the cape is difficult because I know all of my faults, all of my weaknesses and every way that I have ever screwed up. The hero in the movie never falls for long. He gets his super powers and continues on until the world is safe again. For us regular heroes, it’s not a magic movie moment involving a radioactive spider or the destruction of Krypton that begins our ascent. It’s a consistent decision to be the best form of ourselves.