Why I Created Live the Hero

People ask me why I created Live the Hero, and like any other human being I’m tempted to give some larger-than-life, grandiose answer like, “I was struck by sudden divine inspiration” or “I had a spiritual awakening!”

But the truth is plain and simple. I created it because I was unhappy (more on that in a bit). I want Live the Hero to be accessible to anyone who is looking for a way to see life as an adventure rather than a slog through a “miserable world.”

I believe the world is ripe for a positive revolution of the human condition. And I believe more and more people, every day, feel the same way.

Our technology, if used properly, can make a close-knit village of our planet. We just need to believe we can design our individual lives to live with purpose.

I want to help people find the meaning that will lead them, directly or indirectly, to the happiness we all crave. Live the Hero is my attempt to provide a blueprint to help you create your best “designer life.”

Origin Story

In the beginning, I created Live the Hero for me. I was not enjoying life, and finally got tired of feeling that way.

So I started delving into all the wisdom I’d turned my back on when I left college to “get a job in the real world.” I’d been told that all the high ideals of the humanities weren’t applicable to life.

I spent years delving back into the wisdom found in psychology, literature, philosophy, neuroscience, mythology, and pop culture. I pulled out what I thought had the most practical application to help my troubled mind and soul.

The result of my efforts was Live the Hero, a combination of concepts I think can stand up to the stresses of daily life. I offer it as an alternative to the meager “advice” many of us are given when we reach adulthood: little more than a pat on the back and a “good luck out there, kid!”

I believe America’s obsession with the “rugged individual” has made us all default to an attitude of self-isolation. We’re all supposed to be pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, with no help from others. But what we’re really doing is setting each generation up for failure, eroding ourselves internally and breaking ties to other people.

We make a big mistake sending people out into the world without a framework for creating a life of meaning and purpose. I believe this mistake is behind much of the suffering across the globe today.

I want Live the Hero to be a way for people to build up individual resilience and strong communal ties. I want it to be a structure to make life fulfilling.

An Evolving Concept

Live the Hero is still an evolving concept. It was born from a combination of ideas drawn from the diverse sources I mentioned above. And once it started working for me, I wondered if it could help others with finding their own meaning and happiness.

Sure, I’ve laid a good foundation using knowledge gained from formal and informal education, as well as decades of observation of the human condition. I’ve tested the underlying concepts of Live the Hero on myself for some time, and it’s helped reshape my perceptions of life for the better.

But now I want to be sure Live the Hero can help others as well. That’s what this website is for: to build a community, start a conversation, and crowdsource the next stage of Live the Hero’s development.

As time goes on, I’ll continue to outline the concepts of Live the Hero here on my blog. As I do that, I need your help.

So tell me: what do you want Live the Hero to do for you? If you could create a life philosophy that would help you find fulfillment, purpose, and happiness, what would it include? Please leave a comment on this post with your thoughts.

We can build this together, to create a practical philosophy of life we can all use. What I’d like to build is a “guidebook” of sorts. It won’t be the “one and only” instruction manual for life. There is no one answer to the meaning of existence. But I’d like to offer up an option, in the hopes that it helps someone else thrive.

So, I’ll keep proposing my ideas, and together we can put them to the test. Deal?

Let’s challenge each other. Let’s become better together.