Finding your role model... and then becoming one

I am 53 years old and I still have role models in my life. Do you? I look up to these people for various reasons. Their Success and achievements. The hard work they have done. The obstacles that some of them have had to overcome or endure throughout their lives. The list can go on and on. There is one I believe is the most important though.

The most important thing my role models have done for me is to guided me and have taught me how to become a better role model. What they have taught me is about the hard work that goes into being a role model for others. To often we only get to see and hear about all the glory and great things that have happened or are happening to social media people. Real role models will let you in a little deeper and allow you to see their struggles and the difficulties that they themselves go through on a daily basis. Role models don't portray themselves as overnight successes. They made a decision along the way at some point in time in their lives to work hard and search out the difficult path. They chose the less road traveled.

I have found along the way in my own life, that I enjoy searching out the difficult path. As Joe De Sena of Spartan Race puts in "Sometimes you have to manufacture your own resiliency". This means choosing the hard way over the easy way. This means not just thinking about doing a 1000 burpees, but actually doing a 1000 burpees. As they say you just don't "Talk the Talk you must Walk the Walk"

When you choose to live life like in this manor, along the way people will start to notice and they start to look at you differently and may start to view you as a role model. This is not a pretentious act on your part to want to be a role model. This is a serious decision on your part and it can never be taken lightly. Your actions have a direct affect on people and you have a new found responsibility to have your actions be aligned with your perceived values.

I believe wanting to be a true role model is a noble cause. I hope more people will want to be role models and will want to help influence positive change in the people's lives that surround each of us. The world and all of us who inhabit it could really use this, now more than ever.