Part 3: “In Search Of Heroes Book 2 ” How do people become heroes? by Ralph Zuranski
Jeff Dedrick: I think being unselfish, doing things for other people and not having some other motives like they are doing it just because they want to get something out of it be it money or whatever it may be. Unselfishness, that they are giving their time, their energies, their past knowledge, they are giving just for the sake of giving and not expecting something back.
DJ Dave Bernstein: Just simply by giving, by caring, by showing an interest. By finding solutions to problems, and by just being a part of people’s lives.
It is not what he has, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.
- Henri Frederic Amiel
Ted Nicholas: Well, I think you become a hero through mastering something, mastering the field that turns you on, the field in which you have passion. To be a hero is not easy, but it is well worth the effort. A lot of people are looking for the easy way, the lazy way, and the shortcut way instead of realizing that there are no shortcuts in life.
You have to pay the price; you have to have self-discipline. You have to do all these things.
When I say that, I hasten to add, that self-discipline, in my opinion, is a highly overrated skill or quality of a human being.
People think that I’m such a great self-disciplined person. I am in many ways, but I think the best thing about self-discipline that makes it not so tough, and as a matter of fact remarkably easy, is that good habits in life tend to become good actions which tend to become habits.
At first, it may be tough to study a certain amount of time each day or practice your skills a certain amount of time and you just keep practicing them until you get good at what you do. I, for example, have almost no natural skills in sports, but I have been able to accomplish a lot, to win a lot of tennis trophies and things like this more from just the effort and discipline that I put on myself. It becomes a habit that then enables you to have the kind of results that you can have.
In writing for example, I don’t feel that I was endowed. I was always able to communicate fairly well, but I think that I’ve gotten better and better by practicing and by being an individual. Also in speaking, I don’t consider speaking and writing worlds apart as many people seem to think that those are to be.
I think that communication is communication, and I’m a very much of a studier of communication. So I study communication, and I get better at it and it becomes a habit.
So now, Bethany will ask me sometimes, my significant other, she will ask me, “Why are you working so hard? You could have retired a long time ago. Don’t you think about slowing down or taking it easy?” Well frankly, I’m so used to the pace and the kind of habits that I practice every day, part of me is afraid that I will lose some of those skills that I’ve worked so hard to develop unless I continue to do the things that I do.
Again, it’s such a habit that it’s almost impossible to break. Additionally, I’m an individual that has an addictive personality and I’m afraid to try things like drugs, because I’m afraid I might like them too much and become addicted to them. So rather than do that, I addict myself, or try to addict myself to things that are good for me, such as exercise, such as the kind of diet that I try to follow. I don’t do anything 100%; I think it’s dangerous because it makes you an unhappy person.
I think that ten percent of my diet is whatever I want to have. So, I think that if you develop the habits that are necessary for you to become a master, that’s really the secret.