I was listening to a guided meditation today. Attempting to overcome a dip in motivation and to inspire creative productivity. I sat in my quiet place to breath. What I found was my true hero.

Remote Work and Frustration

There are days when being an indie and remote worker bring what seem to be insurmountable obstacles. Meditation helps me to clear away the distractions and refocus on what is important. Sometimes I even come away from it with an amazing. idea.

Today’s meditation focused on identifying a mentor. Someone you admire and want to be like. In the meditation they referred to a spiritual mentor, but I wanted to look at something more down to earth – my professional mentor.

The Process of Finding My True Hero

I thought of writers, coaches, entrepreneurs, and leaders – all amazing people. But with each one I felt ill when I compared myself to them. Partly because I could never experience their success – no one could – we are each unique.

I found myself annoyed at an exercise that was once again asking me to compare myself to someone else. I’ve been recognizing lately that our culture is doing too much of that. The excess of comparison in social media, advertising, and even at the office – is often detrimental to our motivation.

If I tried to see something I wanted in their life, all I could think about were the obstacles or troubles which go along with the positive aspects of being that person.

It reminded me of a lesson I was taught early in life – don’t be jealous nor envious of others – you don’t know what their real life is like. Would you really want to trade your life for theirs? Your problems for theirs? No way.

Every mentor that came to mind brought with it doubts. Not because they were not amazing people, but because I did not want their life nor could I have it.

I did not want their specific collection of strengths and character, it was theirs and only they could use it with the grace and impact.

The Turning Point

I went back to my meditation. I sat for a while longer focusing on my breath and listening to the soothing voice of the recording.

Then I had a thought.

I realized – I didn’t want to be someone else nor mimic nor model someone else.

I wanted to be a better version of me.

I could feel a surge of energy as I realized what had just happened.

The better version of myself is the behavior I need to examine and model.

I just found my hero. My hero is a better version of me.

Challenge

Could your hero be the better version of you?

What is the better version of you?