Hero vs. Victim Mindset

Mindset:

1. Victim

• Victim have no control over their environment

• Blame other than themselves

• Complain about everything

• Succumb to their weaknesses and sometimes glorify them

• They may be a bit player but can’t rouse themselves to be a hero without changing their constitution, their mindset

• Organized against opportunity for real and beneficial change in one’s life

• Self-sabotage their success

• Destiny is out of their influence

• Lack of direction

• Life is uncomfortable

• Tricked themselves into believing the lie

2. Hero:

• Makes choices

• Constructive mindset

• Adhere to their principles

• Assurance in adverse circumstances

• Make mistakes because they are heroes, not superheroes which doesn’t exist

• Learn quickly and recover emotionally

• Shape situations to your advantage and a good heart makes everything better

• Courageous, honest, patient, supportive yet humble

• Hero mindset wields force and creates change

• Master their own will

• Confidence in their decisions

• Still perceives fear and discouragement, worry and foretelling.

• Let the negative feelings to motivate them make change refusing to accept the situation.

3. Main character:

• The focus of the story, actions feelings carry the most weight

4. Supporting characters:

• are there to serve the main character

Lessons of King Leonidas: A Hero Mindset

I’m a big fan of movies. For the most part, there’s usually a lesson that can be learned if you look closely enough. Take the movie 300. It’s about King Leonidas holding off King Xerxes of the Persian empire with 300 of his best men only to finally succumb to the massive forces of the Persian army. Gerard Butler portrays Leonidas in the movie and does a great job of displaying the character traits of a hero that I would like to explore a little further.

Leonidas was a great leader and warrior. Some historians question his decision to stay in the narrow pass when he knew he was outflanked. The decision that ultimately meant sacrificing a small group of men proved to be so powerful for the Greeks that they inevitably defeated the Persians for a second time.

Leonidas demonstrated several key characteristics that form the archetype of the hero/warrior. As men when we tap into our hero archetype we look towards our principles and use them as our backbone. Along the way we are likely going to make mistakes because we’re only heroes after all not superheroes, those don’t exist. When we model behaviours of courage, honesty, and patience and learn quickly from our mistakes we become masters of our own will. This doesn’t mean we don’t have negative feelings because we do. The difference is we refuse to accept the situation and make constructive decisions that shape our situations to our advantage and if we are really good we ultimately make everything better.

So, what does it mean to be a hero today? Well, we may never be in a battle like King Leonidas, but we are the main characters of our life movie. By developing the hero’s mindset of positive self-perception, and having the confidence to know not every decision made will work out perfectly the hero's mindset begins to wield force and creates massive positive change in our lives if we sprinkle it with a little humility.