Be Your Own Superhero.

I almost didn’t write a blog this week, I have a lot going on. A LOT, soon I hope to share more. Yesterday came and went in a blur, a blur that didn’t include a blog. I had resigned that this week would pass without one, I knew you would understand. Tonight while watching Iron Man for the 3000th time, my blog hit me. Fricking Tony Stark saving the day once again. I think my title might be a little misleading as well. When I say be your own superhero, I don’t mean not to wait for someone else to save you. Although, we shouldn’t wait for that, people save us in lots of ways, but we must never sit idly by and wait for what we don’t work for ourselves. Those are important points but not the one I want to make here. When I say be your own superhero I mean be the hero YOU need, the rest is just a bonus.

How does Iron Man come into play? Well, I’m about to tell you. Spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen Iron Man, beware. Also, if you haven’t seen Iron Man, what are you actually doing with your life?! Tony Stark created Iron Man to survive. He didn’t become the fast talking, playboy hero we know and love for the greater good. He became a hero to save his own life. To escape, and to ultimately fix his huge mistakes. Saving the world one bit at a time and the people with it, came later. His initial mission was to save himself and correct the course that brought him face to face with the big ass mirror that showed him a not so flattering reflection. I believe we all have these moments, the ones that clearly show why we are in the dark cave, trapped, bleeding, and trying to find our footing after the rugs been pulled out from under us. It’s these moments that give us our biggest choices. Do we sit back and deny our responsibility in our path and wait for a rescue that may or may not come? That’s one option, sometimes it works. Problem with that is we find ourselves right back in the same place. When we ride someone else’s hero coat tails, we may find ourselves free of our prison, but inevitably we will walk ourselves right back to it. If we never learn from where we have been, we will never be able to get where we are going.

When we find ourselves in these places, do we decide to be the victim, or do we decide to pick up the scraps of our life and make ourselves a bad ass power suit and handle shit? Tony Stark ended up where he was because of his own choices. I mean someone else pulled this trigger, but without “seeing” all the choices he made that led him to that place, he would have never became Iron Man. It was a conscious choice he made that even though he was broken and bleeding and in what appeared to be a hopeless situation, he was going to be his own damn hero. We all have choices to make, we all own responsibility in our path. We are often the victim of others, but we get to decide if we stay the victim. We can’t be responsible for others choices, nor can we always predict them. What we can do is take the lesson, see our responsibility in what allowed us to be their victim, and fricken do something about it. When we decide that we are going to fight for ourselves, fighting for others becomes a pretty awesome side effect. Not only that, we encourage others to fight for themselves as well.

So, next time you find yourself broken and battered, stuck in a hostage situation surrounded by the shattered remnants of our bad decisions, are you going to wait for someone else to walk you out, or are you going to pick all the pieces you can use and make yourself a bad ass power suit? All the life lessons that came with the hurt and betrayal are fuel for your power, use them. Save yourself and helping others comes with it. So many times we want to show everyone else the way, give the directions, tell the story, never once thinking of taking those steps for ourselves. You have to save yourself before you can save anyone else. I encourage you to see your truth, own your truth, and be your own super hero.