The Superhero of Your Life

 

When you hear the word superhero, what comes to mind? A cape, a mask, someone flying across the sky to rescue the world at the last second. We usually imagine strength, spectacle, something extraordinary and almost unreachable.

But if you pause for a moment and look carefully at your own story, you may discover something surprising: you have already met your superhero. In fact, you have probably met more than one of them.

In my experience, everyone has someone who saved them at some point. Not necessarily in a dramatic, life-or-death scene, but in quieter, more human ways.

Someone saved your job when they defended you in a meeting or another person saved your grades when they stayed after class to explain what you didn’t understand. There is that person who saved your marriage by offering perspective at the right moment or saved your confidence when you were about to give up on yourself.

And sometimes, yes, someone truly saved your life. It might have been a teacher who believed in you when nobody else did, a friend who answered the phone at two in the morning and simply listened, a colleague who stood by you when it was uncomfortable to do so or a stranger who spoke one sentence that changed the direction of your thinking. Those moments may look small from the outside, but in the context of a person’s life, they can be decisive.

Although psychology and resilience research remind us that timely support and simple acts of encouragement can have long-term effects on a person’s growth, we often underestimate how powerful it is to be present for someone at a critical moment.

We have all superheroes and the point, however, is not to worship them. It is not about building statues in our minds. It is about learning and cultivating whatever they did to us. It's about telling their stories, keeping their memories, and understanding that, at the end of the day, even superheroes fall sometimes, and you can be the legacy that will make them rise again.

Some of my own superheroes are no longer alive, and yet they continue to teach me through their words, their example and the way they faced adversity. When I remember how they handled pressure, disappointment, critical situations or injustice, I find guidance for my own challenges. Their physical presence may be gone, but their influence is still active.

I invite you to ask yourself a few questions:

• Who believed in me when I doubted myself?
• Who challenged me instead of just comforting me, helping to get out of my comfort zone?
• Who stayed by my side when it would have been easier to walk away?

Your superheroes are not outside your story - they are woven into it. Many times, in strange ways…

A harsh correction, a painful disagreement, even an unfair criticism can become the spark that pushes us to grow. There is a concept often discussed in psychology called adversarial growth: the idea that opposition and difficulty can strengthen us more than comfort ever could. None of my superheroes ever wore a cape, but in this case, not even a friendly face.

They did not applaud us, instead they confronted us. They questioned us and they exposed our weaknesses. At the time, we may have labeled them as enemies, we may even cry or run away.

And yet, because of them, we became better. They saved us in a very strange way, just like some superheroes from comics look like bad people.

One more layer to this reflection: even if someone extended their hand, you were the one who decided to hold it. Even if someone opened a door, you were the one who chose to walk through it. Even if someone offered guidance, you were the one who applied it. Help can be offered, but transformation is always a decision.

In the end, the greatest superhero of your life has always been you. Not because you never needed anyone, but because you accepted help when it came and you allowed yourself to learn. You transformed pain into maturity and support into strength, you stood up, you continued, you chose to grow.

Maybe today is a good day to remember the people who helped you rise with a smiling face or not. It is a beautiful day that you are your own hero too and celebrate it.

And maybe it is also a good day to recognize that somewhere, in someone else’s story, you are the superhero they quietly thank in their heart.

Curiosity or exploration?

Okay, so, let's talk about this whole curiosity issue. You know the old saying, that is present in the languages I know: curiosity killed the cat. Well, maybe it's time to rethink that for humans.

I've always been a curious person – it's like a feature for a Capricornian that a few people know. But then I had this chat with a friend who straight-up called curiosity a sin. Whoa! That got me thinking.

There's this cool quote I found that perfectly captures the essence of curiosity for a person of this sign: They possess an inherent sense of wonder, always seeking knowledge to unravel the mysteries of life. My friend is also a Capricornian, so maybe it's more of a sign characteristic than a general curiosity trait, but I like to reframe curiosity with a bit of seeking.

After all, curiosity can lead us down some rabbit holes, those times when you dive into something without thinking it through. It is not always the best idea and it's like exploring a new neighborhood without checking if it's safe first, a new scientific experiment without protective masks or getting into a discussion with no knowledge on the subject.

Exploration, on the other hand, is all about focus, similar to setting out on a journey with a map and a compass. You're curious, sure, but you're also strategic. It's about learning, growing, and discovering, not just jumping headfirst into the unknown.

So, next time you want to be curious, remember that curiosity may be the starting point, but exploration is the real journey. And it requires preparation, investigation, training and willpower.

And going back to the saying, I think we could make this up: exploration revitalize the soul.

Each day is a new chapter of your life - Reason 23

If your life was a book, what would be the title?  This is a deep reflection each one of us should do from time to time.  The secret behind it is that whatever is the book’s chosen title, so also will be the experience that day.

For leaders, that reflection takes place naturally and it helps to focus.  Energy and resources will be harnessed meaningfully. 

The best leadership does not stop with the choice of book title.  Where there is the mindset that every day is a new chapter with its own beginning, middle and end, an active leader starts renewed and fresh every day.

This is the richness of being a leader, where every day contributes in an important way to growth.

So, for a leader instead of asking the title of their life’s book, an even better question is: What is the title of the new chapter I am starting today?

(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)

Open to adventures!

As a young boy, I was the last person anyone would think to be adventurous. A nerd-to-be, I was even scared to cross the street…

But situations helped to open something in the soul. First, due to a lack of finances, I had to go walking to school every day. It was about half an hour, a long time for a little boy, and that time helped me to develop some physical resilience and even mental as at some point, I was attacked on my way back, which was during the night… Nothing bad happened, but I developed some sense of how to deal with the world around me without running away or isolating myself.

Years later, because I wanted an education my family would not provide, I’ve enrolled into a military school. Those three years at the Air Force were a big adventure and they opened my taste for the different and the risk.

My first life outside my birthplace, Brazil, was in Chile. Learning Spanish was very complicated and getting a job without speaking the local language, at a time when Portuguese was not a fashion as it is today in Latin America… The only position I got was as a salesman, but I was such a bad salesman that I ended being the boss.

That is the reward of risking and the adventure: you learn, a lot. It is much more valuable than any course or anything other people may formally teach you, because you are embedded in the environment like a weird rock at a beach, being molded by others and circumstances.

Every time there is a challenge, I know it is an opportunity to experience something that is there, just waiting for me…

Come on; let’s embrace our next adventure together!

My MERRY CHRISTMAS to you...

One of the most special times of the year is its end. It seems that the entire population of the world (almost) begins to rethink their year, their life and existence, reviewing what has been accomplished and achieved, what was missing and what can be done for next year. But before that, we celebrate a very special date.

Although Christmas is Christian, its message has exceeded the barriers of religion and culture. It is a message of renewal, forgiveness and charity that cannot be ignored, but sometimes is confused with limited trade and mercy.

As it comes so close to the end of the year, allows us a deeper reflection, because as humans it is how we grow: we reflect, we expand our awareness and then share with others.

Want to give yourself a gift? Answer a few questions and apply their answers in your own life. If you want, send them to other people who can benefit from this reflection:

• How I have renewed my own self? Christmas means birth. The image of little baby Jesus born in a stable has a deep spiritual meaning: it is the highest and purest awareness born in a fallen world to help it to improve and transform. Do you let this new awareness that wants to stay afloat become part of your own life? It is an awareness that connects you directly with God and the divine we all have.
• To what extent have I forgiven? Many negative situations happen to us and hurt us. Forgiveness is the magic balm we have in our heart that allows us to move forward and enable others to keep on going. It is the ability to understand and find internal resources to grow, no matter the tragedy we have experienced. Also, the more we forgive, we will feel healthier inside.
• How much charity have I done this year? I think for some people that means to give someone a few cents, or maybe clothes that nobody else uses in the house ... Charity truly begins in the mind, where I understand my own treasures and decide to share with others. Charity can be in the form of a smile given to someone in a difficult time, a word of encouragement, something physical you value but you know it will be more useful to others, and mainly a genuine positive thinking towards the other.

May this Christmas be the time when your heart is satisfied and you can satisfy others' hearts!

Hummm

One of the big struggles people face nowadays is their own past. Yes, forget about Libya and the American economical crisis, your past disturbs you more than anything happen in the world today, small or big.

Yes. It is not easy to accept that, but the past visits me sometimes, to remind me of dark times and huge walls I cannot cross. Past teaches me to give up and to surrender to the world around. Or, it tells me to fight until I am weary, until I am on the floor. Perhaps the past teaches me to just complain and everything will look better - hey, blame someone else and you will see how your own burden gets light. A "wiser" past tells me to go into the theory of my own life, it will give me the wonderful feeling I know it all.

But... only but... I start to pay attention to this teacher. I start to read between lines, to catch its wisdom rather than its information or knowledge. And I really start to learn from my past. I learn light is better than shadows and I have it in myself, others also have it and I just have to switch it on - yes! the reason of the darkness I lived was not the absence of light, it was the fact I did not know how to switch it on.

I learn about the doors and windows in these huge walls that allow me to cross them so easily, and that I must go on - giving up and surrendering is simply not an option, it was a test by my teacher, the past, to see if I was alert. Sorry, no fight at the school, and instead of complaints, it is better to do something better. In a school, there are no blames, we are all learners, and my burden is my backpack, which is really nothing.

The wisest past is teaching me to understand life so that I can live it better.

Thank you, my sweet past, to bring me to this wonderful present.

Take care all of you!

You can be a student of the past, or a victim of the past.

Anthony Strano

Fantasy!

With the arrival of the last movie of Harry Potter, one thing I notice is that it does not matter the century we are all, with its technological advances: people love to dream.

There are probably two categories of people in the case of those who are queueing to watch the movie. First, there are those who just want to enjoy and live nice moments. Fantasy and dreams have this magical spell on us all that makes us to forget whatever is happening around and live a life that is not ours. After the two hours or so of the film, we are back to the old routine. Fast, the effect of that experience goes away sending us back to the same former state (or worse).

Another category is of those who are doing different things in their lives. They are already living a dream, and so the movie is more like a kind of reassurance. It works as an impulse so that the dream gets stronger and stronger. These kind of people very easily identify themselves with the characters and even though they won't do magic all around... well, forget that, they WILL do magic all around, but not the kind you show in a movie. They will learn how to get better and change faster. The movie will be a school session for such a people.

Which category are you? Take care!