Like most people, I tend to get hit with random revelations at any given moment in time. This revelation hit with a lovely dose of inspiration following a theatre viewing of the new Spider-Man film. Watching someone fighting with incredible strength and resilience made me think about the rigorous process that leads someone down that path. I’m talking beyond the movies, specifically the strength it takes to build oneself into becoming the character. All the actors that put in work and effort into physically and mentally forming themselves into the characters they seamlessly portray on the big screen.
It takes more than willpower. I honestly believe that willpower is not the means to anything, it is more like a push that triggers a snowball effect. The true power lies within discipline. To be disciplined is to hold power. When someone has reached a level of self-discipline, to where they are able to follow through their words with action, they are the most powerful people. All successful people have discipline. It is the secret sauce. Superhero’s are who they are due to that discipline as well. While they have superhuman strength, they still need to go down this path of hard grueling work to get to the level of ‘Super’, and I believe the same goes for us. While becoming an inhumanely strong being with spider-like abilities is out of the question for most of us, it is incredibly possible for us to become our ideal versions of ourselves. That ideal looks different for every single person, however, it is attainable. It is.
Reaching self-actualization is a lot easier said than done. Gaining that level of discipline that allows actors like Tom Holland to become Spider-man is not any easy feat. It takes a lot of work, not just physically. We need to alter the way we think. Our brains are wired in a way where they will constantly choose the easiest path. The easiest path is the known one, the one you have taken every single day of your life. To divert that path is to take the journey of discomfort, and your mind will fight you every single step of the way. That is what makes it difficult, however, we have proof from many incredible and successful people, that it is doable. If they could do it, so could we. Rome was not built in a day, therefore expecting oneself to go from one extreme to the other is not feasible. We need to start small and allow our brains to find comfort in being uncomfortable, until it becomes easy. Until your brain stops fighting you for the sake of comfort, because it now finds comfort in what allows you to reach self-actualization.
This revelation is one that has ruminated in my mind for a while, and I think tonight it took center stage. It’s time to put forth the effort to reaching self-actualization. I watched a video a few weeks ago where this girl was talking about how doing nothing is a choice that also leads to discomfort. We are uncomfortable whether we make that push towards becoming the person we want to be, and uncomfortable if we don’t. We just have to choose which discomfort we would rather live in. The discomfort of never reaching your fullest potential, or the discomfort of living in infinite regret. Abraham Maslow discusses this idea way further in his argument that suffering is unavoidable within the human condition. You either suffer through the regret of squandering your potential, or suffer through the inherent pain that comes with transforming oneself and growing into your ideal self. If pain is inevitable either way, I would personally choose the pain that is worth something, versus pain that leads to nothing.
If you were looking for a sign to begin working towards self-actualization, then take stumbling upon this as a sign. The right path is the one that makes you happy. Being a human is hard enough as it is, we do not need the weight of unnecessary future regret weighing us down too. With that said, it is important to note that growth is not a linear path, it is more like a swirly squiggle of sorts, one that goes up and down and sideways and frontways and all the ways. We have to be okay with that. Spiraling over a few sick days or lazy days or whatever it may be, is not going to aide you in any way. Take that time and then lock back in. To be human is not to be perfect, it is to try. Trying alone makes you a winner. I think we are winners regardless. I truly do not believe in failure. We never fail, we just learn. Learning is you gaining something, something that you could not have gotten without failing. Thus, leading you into evolving and becoming better than you were prior to the ‘failure’. When you stop believing in failure, an angel gains its wings. Truly. You free yourself of these imaginary shackles that force you into making the safe choices because you were afraid of failure. Embracing failure and rejection opens up so many doors. All we can do is try, and hope for the best. If things work out, then that’s amazing, and if they don’t, then you’ve simply learned and gained experience that you can use the next time you try something. It is so important to try things, you might surprise yourself, even if you suck at it. With that, I leave you to find your inner Spider-Man.
