Sometimes I feel like I’m viewing the world through a GoPro camera on slow-motion frame-by-frame…stop..start..pause…play. I watch other people seemingly unburdened and able to live in real-time without the bothersome need to always review the highlight footage after every play.
Sometimes I wish I could skip the footage review and not be so observant. Yet… there are these Matrix like moments when time slows down and everything is vibrant and real and happening. I feel alive…fully alive. And then I think maybe seeing life in single frames helps me extract more of the juices from life?
My GoPro-like viewpoint helps me see that we are all chasing after the same thing. We want a life that’s meaningful to us. People like us want our lives to make a difference. Sometimes we can’t easily explain even what change or impact we want to leave. We simply can’t shake the idea that we’re supposed to make the world better than we found it. We feel most alive when we are engaged, known, seen and understood.
I love GoPro’s tag line, Be a Hero. Being the hero in my life isn’t about fame, fortune, spotlights and ego. I think it’s deeper than that.
I think being the hero of our lives requires us to show up and own the golden moments, our glory, our mojo, our love, our sharp whitt, our mana “Yeah, can you believe I did that? Killer!” The stuff of our life that would make the GoPro photo of the day highlights real.
And…I’ve gotta own the scenes of my life that aren’t great also, “yeah….can you believe I did that?” All the footage that ends up on the cutting room floor, that we hope never makes it out for everyone to see-Our mistakes, shortcomings, character defects, and places we aren’t yet finished.
Be the hero. Own it all.
All the ingredients are raw materials that are useful in our stories. All of it.
Be gracious and kind to yourself. Love the people you are with. Be curious. Go searching for life.
Keep going,
Aaron
