of solitary heroes

Be it fiction or real life, heroic characters are often portrayed as loner wolves. These are the types who are supposedly the saviors of society but feel like misfits within that same society. They'd be the first ones to rush at the first instance of inconvenience and help in times of distress and instantly disappear once they've saved the day!

Ask them to be on the lookout for miscreants at a public event and they'd love to guard the place, but invite them as a guest for the same event—you'd be surprised how smoothly they'd excuse their way out. It was this duality—the selfless refusal of acclaim coupled with a conviction to be a savior—that makes them so out of the world! Clearly, they derive their sense of purpose from being helpful to others, creating value and taking real action instead of performing for an audience.

They have this internal locus of control, a credo that they stand by which makes them so inspiring for people of all ages. This strong inner locus of control wasn't built overnight. It's the result of nights spent in deep reflection weighing thier choice and rebuilding their identity wrestling every passing minute.

The ease with which a superhero solves any dilemma is a direct result of how much time he's spent solidifying it in plain solitude. Spider-Man wiped out his entire existence to protect those he loved. He knew where his priorities stood and so the sacrifice of erasing his identity for the larger good seemed absolutely the right thing to do in the moment.

But that same solitude cuts both ways. However, even the strongest inner compass starts to darken with all the vices around; the power of bad influence can easily overtake any goodness inside. Spiritual cleansing, finding an inner locus of control—this is the hero's journey into the self. Humans cannot tame the demons they carry within if they don't go through the discomfort of actually facing them, without any external noise.

We all dreamed to be heroic when we were little, saw a full range of possibilities and life felt limitless. But as we aged, we saw the actual cost of it—misalignment and the noise of feeling left out. The result—we shrunk our dreams to fit in someone else's story and in doing so we dimmed our own lights.