Be a hero, not a zero!
“We’re all on our own journey. No matter where we came from, what language we speak, the color of our skin or anything that seemingly makes us different, in the end, we’re all just humans living our own story. And it’s up to each of us to be the hero of our story, which inspires other people to do the same.”–Zach Horvath
Thinking is one of our greatest ‘superpowers’. It is our ability to think about complex problems or ideas and how to solve problems which sets us apart from animals.
You may have heard of a thought experiment proposed by renown physicist Irwin Schrödinger called ‘ Schrödinger’s cat’.
Schrödinger stated that if you place a cat and something that could kill the cat (poison, a radioactive atom, etc ) in a box and sealed it, you would not know if the cat was dead or alive until you opened the box, so that until the box was opened, the cat was (in a sense) both “dead and alive”.
Now let’s replace the happy little cat with YOU. The box is now your apartment, and the poison is junk food and television. Are you dead or alive? Maybe thinking that being in front of the television watching movies or playing video games while munching on Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew sounds pretty good to you. But are you ‘living’ or simply existing? Part of living is growing and changing. Without growth and change as an individual you are simply passing time until you die.
Let’s make one third and final substitution to this thought experiment we are pondering. This time we’ll replace your apartment with your ‘comfort zone’. A comfort zone is a nice, simple easy place to be in, but nothing ever grows there. No matter where you go, there you are living in your comfort zone repeating the same day, doing the same things and calling it a life. Is that all there is to your journey? Is that your story? Are you happy? REALLY???
The Hero’s Journey
The common template of all good stories involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. It’s commonly referred to as The Hero’s Journey or The Monomyth. There are other aspects but this is the simplest description. You leave your comfort zone, discover new ideas about life, and become forever transformed as a better version of yourself. But the journey doesn’t begin until we leave our comfort zone behind us and head into uncharted territories. Life is an amazing adventure and is a journey filled with twists and turns. Everyone has a story to tell, and usually we are at the center of the tales we tell. Everyone wants to be the hero, and we convince ourselves that we are always in the right, so sometimes we fool ourselves into believing that our comfort zone is great and wonderful and we are happy sitting here on our comfy couch. Living in the comfort zone and going nowhere is The Zero’s Journey. Don’t be a ZERO, be a HERO! Heroes inspire other people to become greater than they are. Everyone wants to be a hero deep down inside if they are true to themselves. It just takes that initial leap of faith and the guts to ignore the naysayers and continue moving forward.
LIVE A GREAT STORY
On July 4th 2012 Zach Horvath hopped on a plane to Europe with a one-way ticket. Like many young adults, he was trying to figure out the meaning of life and didn’t really have a plan but knew he needed to change ‘something’. So he decided to travel Europe for seven months and visited 17 countries, explored 50 cities, and met dozens of new friends. It was a life changing event. As a result he came to realize that no matter what our background is, we are each living our own unique story, and we need to make it count and make it great! He started his own company selling inspirational stickers, t-shirts, banners and buttons encouraging everyone to LIVE A GREAT STORY! Your personal happiness is directly related to your outlook on life, so it is vital that you pursue self-improvement, and encourage others to do the same. We all rise higher when we help lift up others, but this is only possible if we are the best us possible. So don’t quit, move forward, travel and see the world, do new things , experience new adventures, and meet new friends. All around us each day there are people studying us without our knowledge. What message do we want to pass on to them by our example and actions?
If you’d like to check out the LIVE A GREAT STORY merchandise available visit Zach’s website at LIVEAGREATSTORY.com
THAT’S MY STORY AND I’M STICKING TO IT!
Four years ago, I started my blog InstantCoffeeWisdom.com to encourage and inspire people to become greater versions of themselves through self-improvement. I realized that in order for people to be happy and successful they needed to be in a good place financially, spiritually and physically. Two-and-a-half years ago I took up running, ran my 1st 5K race and the focus of my blog turned towards running because your health is your wealth. Just as you have one story, you have one body and one life. I encourage you to live it to the fullest! I am headed down to Ocean City MD for JEEP WEEK and my well-deserved summer vacation! I hope everyone has a great rest of the Summer!
You can find me at these upcoming races:
SEPTEMBER 2021
Bird-in-Hand Half-Marathon September 11th @ 7:30 am Bird-in-Hand PA
Halfway to St Patty’s Day 5K September 8th @6:45 pm Reading PA
Third Thirsty Thursday 5K Race Series – Race 6/7 September 16th @6:45 pm Reading PA
InstantCoffeeWisdom will return with another article on September 12th 2021. Be sure to check back then for the next one.
As always, I wish you success and happiness!
Instant Coffee Wisdom 