Shades of Grey
Lord knows we need heroes. Courageous, self-sacrificing people. Setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People who teach us how to hold on a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most; even our dreams.
For me the thing that I want most is for people to always think highly of me, that I’m a good and genuine man, even if that means sometimes disguising the truth about my thoughts, actions and feelings.
Corny as it may be for some the words leading this article are taken from the second Spiderman movie. They speak a great deal of truth don’t they? The truth about who and what we should aspire to be or at least the direction we should be moving in.
It’s extremely difficult to deal with the truth. It’s something I fail at miserably more times than I care to count, yet I find when I do confront my darker secrets I become freer, clearer and closer to who I’m meant to be.
I can’t recall the last time I listened to my inner hero; the quiet voice within.
I’m not referring to saving damsels in distress, rescuing babies from burning buildings or saving the world from alien invaders, I’m writing about acting on doing the right thing. The absolute right thing, whatever that maybe. I believe we all know the truth.
I don’t believe however, as popular notions would have us acknowledge, there are shades of the truth, grey areas as they’re often described. I do think though the truth is different for each of us – the truth within us that is.
If something is not quite true then it’s completely false.
It’s a matter of conscience isn’t it?
I’m not talking about intellectual perspectives, rather about the depths of you.
I’m positive you have felt that nagging feeling deep inside from time to time, we all have; something telling us our motives, actions, or direction is not quite right, not quite true.
Knowing the truth is one thing, but acting on it is entirely another.
In all areas of our lives our truths large and small have consequences on us, for us, and on the people around us. No matter how seemingly insignificant as a result of our decisions and actions, something or someone always moves, shifts, or changes.
At the end of each day we know the truth. How hard we worked, how many people we helped. We know how many challenges we did or didn’t face up to, we know if we spoke the truth or not, and we know whether or not we exaggerated the reality of things to our friends, the boss, or our loved ones – we know.
Each time we don’t deal with the truth, if we ignore it, or turn away from it we become a little duller, less open to the truth, and further from who we were created to be.
Real courage isn’t about plucking cats from trees, it’s about confronting the unknown, and it’s about confronting you.
There’s a hero in all of us, one that keeps us honest, gives us strength, and makes us noble; even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most.
Sell without regret.
Michael Tate
Sales Director | NRS Media