What Is an Everyday Hero?

There are different kinds of heroes. Some are superheroes and have powers that only exist in movies and comic books. Some are idols who are given hero status because of the professions they chose.

There are accidental heroes who happen upon their heroic deeds, like the Miracle on the Hudson pilot Captain Sullenberger or the NY Subway hero Wesley Autrey. I don’t mean that their actions were accidental, but the fact that they were in that place at that time was not intentional.

So what about the rest of us?

We all have the opportunity to be Everyday Heroes – people who stand opposite those who fall into victim mode. There are three simple ways to do this (simple in concept, difficult in action).

1. Seek to discover and understand others’ challenges instead of how you may be experiencing pain or difficulty.
2. Seek to recognize that which is positive in your life, that for which you can be grateful and focus your attention on these things.
3. Seek to find what you can do, what action you can take in even the most challenging or overwhelming situation, and choose to take some positive action.

Inherent in being an everyday hero is that you are active. You seek that which keeps you in a positive, heroic state. This doesn’t happen by accident (though it is more natural for some). We can all choose to be more heroic in these ways.

And who are the Everyday Heroes who do these things? They are the people who lift up those with whom they come in contact. They are the ones who move us out of shock and into solution mode when our jobs or families or lives are thrown into crisis. They are the ones who confront even the hardest personal challenges with a strength and gratitude that inspires the rest of us.

We can all be that hero, the Everyday Hero.