When most guys are growing up they would usually look at a character from a comic book or TV show as their hero, such as Batman or Captain America (This would be a good fight actually!)
As kids get older those heroes tend to shift towards more fitness athletes, actors singers and people like that.
While there is nothing wrong with this, I do find that the actual true heroic people in life don’t get the credit they deserve because it’s usually not as glamorous as running for a touchdown or being on the movie screen.
Also know that when I use the word “hero”, I’m speaking about who people look up to or admire basically.
Where Am I Going With This..
Nowadays it seems that we admire people in more of a form of jealousy rather than look up to them with a form of respect like people use to.
We want to be like that the WWE wrestlers because their jacked, famous and all the ladies love them, we want to be like them to get the attention and perks of life like they have.
I’m not trying to guilt anyone if you do look up to people like this because I’ve done it to, it’s kind of how society pushes us to think by glorifying them across T.V and everywhere else.
Heroes Can Be Right Under Your Nose..
Reading up to this point may have just eliminated 99% of the people who you would ever think about in terms of who you might want to be like.
Look around, maybe you see your mom busting her butt working 2 jobs to keep the bills paid, maybe you see your
Grandparents raising your siblings kids for whatever reason that may be or your dad working the same job everyday that he absolutely hates but does it anyway to put food on the table.
These are not some of the things we think about as being heroic because they’re in no way glamorous, but there are plenty of good habits that we can emulate from heroes such as this that will not only help us improves ourselves but allow us to be the ones being looked up to from our kids & grandkids.
Look Past Appearances
Most times when picking someone we look up to, it’s usually a tough looking dude who is jacked or basically has some sort of alpha male look to him.
Yea I get it, but do me a favor stop reading this (only for a second, make sure you come back!), now open another tab and google the name “Alan Turing”.
Look at the picture of him, now he looks just like your average Joe right? Well on top of that he was a socially awkward introvert which had a stutter, at least according to the movies and what I’ve read about him.
This hardly describes anyone of interest who most people would look up to but this same person was also probably the single biggest hero in the world by saving an estimated 14 million to 21 million lives.
Now, I’ll let the suspense build up from there and recommend you to go watch the movie, The Imitation Game to see exactly how Turing saved those lives.
Being The Role Model
While I’m talking a lot about things to look for in a role model, this goes the same for how you act as well because you might not know who looks up to you.
The craziest thing about this is that how you act can have a huge chain reaction type of setup that can span through generations (huge mind trip right?!).
Let me explain what I mean by that; your dad tried his best to act like his father, then you to your father, then your little brother did the same about you.
Your grandfather could have a say in who you’re as a person, indirectly (not talking genetics here). Of course, this is only a scenario and is probably a rare scenario at that because I myself looked up to my grandfather instead of my father, so it does haven’t been an exact chain reaction, but you get the point here.
Wrapping This Up
Picking a hero or a role model can be a very important decision in life, especially for those who are younger.
Most of the time we just pick someone who has all the things that we want and think if we be just like them then surely we’ll get it as well.
This makes picking a good role model one of the most difficult decisions for those who are younger because it’s almost always about all the cool gadgets & good- looking ladies when growing up, heck it’s still that way with every age group, for the most part.
Just try to think that if you took away all the cool stuff, all the good-looking women and the fame, would that be a person you would want to emulate yourself after?
By doing this you get more of a clear head way of looking at people, not only for picking a role model but just looking at people in a different light in everyday life.
This article may have been written many years too late for finding someone to look up to for most of you, but if any young bucks happen to find this article, and it helps even 1% of them, then I’ll consider this article a success!