Identify your 'Hero' ...
If you've been looking at the various articles on this blog and pages on this website you will no doubt have noted that the boxer Muhammad Ali features as a source of inspiration for me.
What was, possibly one of his 'throw away' comments about having a 'Future History' really caught my imagination. He was talking about a visualisation technique, but we do know that simple visualisations may not be as effective as some self-help writers and trainers suggest. However, with the addition of other sensory modalities 'total sensory visualisations' can be very powerful. This is something explored in my forthcoming book.
In this article I really wanted to explore the idea of personal 'heroes' and 'inspirations'.
As we grow and develop we may 'look up' to many different people - some within your own family and friends, some from the stories we read and the films we watch.
We may identify the the heroic behaviours of those who have overcome incredible odds and challenges; we may recognise the values and attitudes of those who have achieved and we may recognise those characters who set themselves incredible goals.
If I reflect on these inspirational people my list would include...
Muhammed Ali
Marie Curie
Carl Sagan
Captain Picard (Star Trek)
Merlin
Einstein
Aleister Crowley
Vincent Price
Sylvia Plath
And many more you could find on my growing Pinterest Boards Inspirations and Icons
The point, for me, is that it possible to draw inspiration from so many sources - and, you may not have to agree with everything about an 'icons' behaviour and personality. You can be inspired by their behaviours and actions in specific situations.
Whilst it is interesting to ask 'who inspires you', it is more useful to ask 'how' they inspire you?
What facets of their outlook, commitment and engagement in life are inspirational and possibly aspirational?
Now let's be clear here.
We're not trying to become a carbon copy of which ever heroine or hero inspires us. We are looking to our 'idea' of them to offer different perspectives on our current situation. This means that a powerful question could be...
What would Picard do in this situation?
What would Marie Curie say, do?
Of course these questions may never have been answered by our named 'heroic guru'.
But, that's not the point.
The point is that we have created an internal representation of these people; and in many ways it is as complete as we want it to be. We can hallucinate (imagine) the characteristics, values and attitudes of our heroes, they our versions of them.
Of course we can research more about these people; we can read biographies and better understand their motivations, perhaps, and this could create a deeper understanding of them, However, by identifying them as inspirations we have created an internal, personal, representation of who and what they are.
In NLP terms, your Heroes and Heroines can become part of the resources you use to navigate your own way through life.
Both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have written about the power of archetype and myth - so let's embrace our heroes and let them guide us on our own quests.
Practical Activity.
Create and revisit your own list of inspirations, heroes and heroines (you could use Pinterest to do this in a very visual way).
Then ask yourself about the qualities you admire in each; explore how these qualities could help you when you feel that you are out of ideas or lacking in resources.
Play with your ideas about these people and if you like read more about them...
FIND INSPIRATION FROM YOUR HEROES.
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