Be the Purple Cow!

Posts tagged hero

Not all the time do we stand for a cause in life that will define us.

But we should.

Not all the time do we beat our chest and brace ourselves for a tough challenge.

But we should.

Not all the time do we rise up to our potential and give our best.

But we should.

Not all the time do we speak our heart without fear and stick to it.

But we should.

You could be a leader, a politician, a diplomat, a writer, a teacher, a public speaker, a community organizer, or even an apprentice in a company, when you have to speak, 

Speak your heart out. Loudly. And without fear.  (click the image below to see how articulate Dr Martin Luther King was)

An American hero. A Nobel Peace Prize winner. Time Person of the Year 1963.

That’s not what Martin Luther King Jr was, though history remembers his as such.

A man who fought for freedom for all. A man who stood against the arrogant oppressors of liberty. A man who convinced a whole generation on something that was never imagined to be possible before,

“Be it black, be it white, we are all equal.”

And whenever you fight for liberty, fairness and equality, no matter who you are in person, but in spirit, you are Dr King. 

In 1964, all of Dr King’s peaceful protesters were scared to walk the streets of St Augustine, Florida as a march of freedom because they were being  beaten up badly and jailed for no reason by white policemen. 

Then an old handicapped lady, Ms.Georgia Reed, came out of her kitchen and volunteered to walk the streets with courage.

She is an actual hero of civil rights movement. And a million others who fought bravely for equality.

Ms Reed, when asked on what she wants from Dr King, she said, “I will lead the march on my crutches but you have to take me home once, because if I get arrested and go to jail, I wanna go in my best possible dress.” 

Yes, Nothing less!

You have the potential to shape your own destiny. In your own way. 

You can choose it to make it big or leave it small. 

You have the power to be someone people aspire to be with.

You have a chance to live a life that is not marked by despair and defeat, but by guts and glory.

You have an opportunity not just to lead your life, but to lead hundreds who will want to follow in your footsteps.

Superhero, don’t you be dormant, the world wants you to act!

[Click on the little kid to watch an amazing piece of voice over by Russel Crowe]

This evening after a conversation with a dear friend of mine, I discovered this contextual quote:

“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” - Mary Tyler Moore.

The reality is we all make mistakes. Even the greatest of the greats made grave mistakes. 

If you look back in history, your notion of trying to be “perfect” will be shattered with tons of examples of minor and major mistakes.

Even the legendary sailor Columbus mistook America for India and thus called them “Red Indians”. 

Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Ben Franklin, Oliver Brothers, and almost every one who made history also made mistakes. 

But what differentiated them from the mediocre people was that they learned from their mistakes. They didn’t stop at errors, they rose high and wise.

If your yesterday was an error, don’t worry too much about it. Instead, try to compensate your today brilliantly for your lost yesterday.

Excuse yourself. Boldly. And honestly. And then get back to work.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

How do you like it to be? 

Today marks the 200th day since I started writing this blog. 

Thanks to Seth for his inspiration, what began as a sprint has now become a marathon and I promise I’m not going to stop this anytime soon.

The journey has been more than amazing, though initially painful, but now has become more of a daily work out for my mind.

I’ve written the same thing in my 50th, 100th, 150th and even now, 

” The greatest about the greatest thing in life is actually doing it.” 

There must be something in your life which you love so badly that you can endure the pain of doing it for 200 days for FREE.

Surely, there is atleast one such thing. If you haven’t found it yet, don’t settle. Look for it. Dig deep for it. And when you find it, don’t relent. 

You should look high in the sky. Not low in the ditches. Dust your chest, aim at the stars, race like a bull, flap like a bird, spread like a fire, rise like a tide.

Defeat the idea of defeat.

Destroy the force of despair.

Triumph with the spirit of a champion.

Go, the world awaits a hero. YOU!

Only once in a while, a city sleeps in hope.

A hero brings hope. A glimmer of belongingness. A tender touch of togetherness.

Only once in a while, a city owns its hero. 

Exactly like that, in life, only once in a while, you will see hope.

Nurture it. Protect it. It’s like a shining comet. 

You can show me lot of places to feel negative. or to feel less important. or less capable. Lot of things that make us feared, scared, bullied etc.

But I will show you a mirror and tell you what you see in it is the hero.

Are you ready to believe it? Can you be the hero of your life?

Can you be the shining comet? 

Martin Luther King once said,

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

No matter how much your challenge frets you, denies you, breaks you or even buries you, you should rise. Rise from the ashes.

From the bed of mediocrity, from the dead negativity, to the spring of hope, to the dawn of courage, awake.

Your life needs a hero. Can you be him?

I once wrote about bringing out “the hero” in you.

The definition of a hero varies variedly from person to person and from situation to situation. But what’s constant is choosing to be heroic. It’s not by doing the grand acts, rather it’s by doing the small things that matter in your daily life.

I thought it’d be great to write a recipe to be a hero. Apparently, Rudyard Kipling already did that in his renowned peom, if-

“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!” 

A story isn’t complete if the hero cannot fail.

Hero should be vulnerable enough to get hurt. Yet brave enough to take the challenge on. That is when he’s called a hero.

Because he has a purpose. A greater purpose than most mortals we meet.

And that is what exactly you need in your life to be a hero. 

Purpose. The why you do it. 

Once you know it, and believe in it, the how will appear somehow, like I wrote here. 

Understandably, you might have so many fears. Fear about rejection. Fear about failure. Fear about isolation. Fear about loss of identity. Fear of perishing in this fast paced world. Yes, they were there yesterday, today and will be in your tomorrow too if you don’t act now. 

The hero has to rise. Rise over his excuses. 

The hero has to win. Win over his fears.

I know a best way of doing it.

By facing them.

I wrote this a hundred times. I tell myself this a hundred times.

Including me, all of us, have this habit of wasting away a great day in the contentment of being just okay.

For me, if your day was okay,then it was terrible. 

Your day is bound only to be one of these two things. Amazing or Average. Unlike bargaining with street-vendors, there’s nothing in between.

But before we know, our day passes quickly. And we hit the bed, blaming everything on everyone else. Why? Because, we’re used to being just okay.

So, challenge everything that’s ordinary. Mainly if it is YOURS.

Don’t gossip, or chit-chat. Leave this to your colleagues/classmates who are happy being average. If you ever thought to be extra-ordinary, never indulge in ordinary things.

You may look like an idiot but stand out of the crowd. It doesn’t mean isolation. It means giving importance only to important things. 

Silly talks, Long endless texting, over-socializing on FB/twitter, meeting every tom-dick and harry in your town is not life. I mean, not extra-ordinary life.

Categorize your friends now. Brutally. Allot time only to the top ones. The rest will anyway choose the next hottest thing on Facebook, if not you.

All through this, you may feel alone. Don’t panic. This is the not-so-popularized phase of every winner. In the Hollywood lingo, “the making” phase.

Remember, Every day is new. Treat the new one newly. Shed your past. Dust your chest. Every day, the world awaits a new character by you. 

The comedian, the sidekick, the villian or the HERO.

Who are you today?