You might have noticed how every superhero has an origin story that involves hardship or trauma. Iron Man was a prisoner of war, Captain America had polio, and Batman witnessed his parents’ murder.
Out of adversity, they develop great strengths and actualize through doing good.
We’re all just mortals and life is not a comic book but there are relatable truths woven into these fantasies. The origin stories are metaphoric and touch universal themes similar to the way myths do.
Taking that adversity, mastering it, and then doing good.
We’ve all been through some shit and we’ve all got scars.
More and more, I’m interested in the ways we take our own negatives and transform them into positives.
I’ll give you an example from my own life. Growing up, I lacked structure to an extreme degree. I was left to fend for myself a lot and never learned how to set limits for the sake of my own well-being.
I developed poor habits around eating, sleeping, and drinking among other things.
So for me, self-control and personal care have been challenging. I think this is pretty common.
Over the past several years, I’ve flipped a lot of the bad habits into good ones. At 53, I’m getting pretty good at it.
This is a robust, adaptive frame - forging strengths from weaknesses.
A real-life superpower.
George Pérez: JLA?Avengers #3 (2003)
Here’s some links related to today’s discussion.
10 Best Superhero Origin Stories
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Transtheoretical Model of Intentional Behavior Change
Phil thanks again for taking the time to listen to me! It helped me at a tough time.