Episode Transcript

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of if I'm honest with Julia Landauer. I'm really excited for this episode because as you've probably learned by now, if you didn't know already, you know, I'm fairly aspirational. I set big goals. I like improving myself, I like striving for not necessarily perfection, but striving for being the best that I can be. And I think that having heroes plays a big part in how we're able to mold ourselves to be the version of ourselves that we want. So that is the theme of this week's episode, I'm going to talk about heroes, I'm going to talk about my heroes, why I think they're important, and how we can use them as guiding stars for how we go about living our lives. So a hero is defined as a person known for courageous acts or nobility of character. We see heroes in children's stories and movies. And it's a question that we ask a lot of high profile people in interviews, we call celebrities and athletes are heroes, we have nurses, we have doctors, we have emergency responders, there are so many types of heroes that we can have. And I think heroes are important for a few reasons. First, it's empowering to aspire to be like someone that you admire and respect, whether we know what we want to do with our lives, or how we want to live or if we're feeling a little lost. And we're trying to find some direction. And this can be when we're older, younger doesn't really matter. Having someone that you look up to whether you know them personally or not, gives you that North Star, right, it gives you that goal, it gives you that direction, if you might otherwise feel overwhelmed, because sometimes the big picture or the kind of person that you want to be or the kind of life you want to live can be very overwhelming, right? Like there's a lot of factors, there's a lot of stuff out there. And so having a way to anchor yourself in how you want to behave, how you want to be treated, how you want to treat others, can be really, really helpful. And I think that it plays a role and having heroes plays a role in helping us be our best selves. The second reason I think having Heroes is important is because having heroes helps us recognize traits that we think are valuable. I view this in a twofold way. On the one hand, having heroes allows us to think about how we want to live our own lives, how we want to behave, I might have a hero. And I think that the way that she handles herself in negotiations is really great. And that's what I want to emulate. The second way that traits are valuable. And we can recognize that is how we have relationships with our friends and our partners in our families, we might have heroes where we see the way that they communicate, or we see the way that they give grace to others, or whatever it might be. They have those traits or they have those interactions with other people. And we think that's important. And then we're gonna have an eye out for that when we're building relationships. Okay, does this person emulate something that I think is valuable? Does this person have traits that maybe mirror or similar to or tangentially related to these traits that I find really important and valuable in other people. So it can help be this litmus test to are the other people that we're building relationships serving us in the way that we want when we're building out these relationships. And the third reason that I think that having Heroes is important is because having heroes who we respect who we look up to, keeps us honest, and in check with how we're living, how we're behaving, how we're treating others, and can kind of be a litmus test. And we can always refer back you know, what our hero do this is this how someone that I respect would handle the situation or react to a situation or be spending their time or anything like that. And so for those three reasons, you know, the empowering aspect, the recognizing traits that we really like, and helping us stay honest with ourselves, amongst other things, I'm sure those things kind of lead me to find heroes really, really important. And something that I regularly take inventory of, you know, I have my my all time heroes for sure. But as I meet more people, as I see more people as I learn about other people in different industries, I regularly adjust my hero list and I regularly take a mental note of what I liked about those people. So without further ado, I want to talk about my famous heroes, and I've got four of them, two men, two women, and I'm gonna go in chronological order of learning about them and doing deep dives into them and becoming enthralled by them. My first and earliest hero that was famous that I remember is Michael Schumacher. You know, I grew up watching Formula One and at that time, he was always winning, he was dominating and I thought that he had a really great charisma. I thought he had great energy great smile it you know, loved racing was so passionate about it was so serious about it. I love that. I also really appreciated that he was so machine like and aggressive but also seemed warm and personable and funny while being one of the best. And as an aspiring racecar driver, I just thought that is what I want to be. I want to be that type of incredible driver, good team member supportive all of that stuff. So he was a longtime hero of mine. The second hero that I remember really being excited by was Amelia Earhart. So I learned about her in school. And I loved that she was a woman who is pursuing a technical and adventurous vocation, despite all the gender stereotypes, especially in her time, in seeing, you know, photos and descriptions about her, she also seemed very calm and mysterious, and all these more demure traits that I can't really achieve. Despite my efforts. I know I'm not at all mysterious, but I am trying. And I just found that really kind of mystical and cool. And, obviously, because we have limited information about her and don't have a ton of videos and everything, it's easy to kind of have that mystery, but I just thought that she was such a badass and so brave in a way that if I'm honest, I'm not sure, I would necessarily call myself right away. Although I know that sounds weird as a racecar driver. But, you know, I just thought she was so incredible. And I wanted to be like her. The next hero that I've had for a long time as Paul Newman, you know, he is the definition of renaissance man, he has had so many incredible life chapters like being an actor and being a racecar driver, being a businessman and being a philanthropist. And I just thought, wow, he just keeps doing really cool shit, that is so exciting. And he's not defined by one pillar of his career or one really intense activity that he's doing. And that kind of, for me painted the picture that I can continue to do whatever I want. And I love that. And also, I've always considered him classy. If so, again, I think I can be classy, but I always aspire to be a little classier, I think I'm a little chaotic, a little messy. So being able to kind of see this really calm, cool and collected guy was really cool. And my fourth hero that continues to be such a badass is Serena Williams, what what I found really empowering from her right away, was that she openly talked about loving to win. And when I was growing up, I didn't really see or hear a lot of women athletes, like just being totally captivated by and going after the win. You know, I heard a lot of women kind of give credit to their coaches and the team that they had behind them, which that's important for sure. But you know, it's not very ladylike historically, to want to win, to want to be the best to want to obliterate the competition. And I loved that Serena leaned into that she loved winning, that's what she was there to do. And she was fairly unapologetic about it. And being unapologetic in a healthy way is something that I continue to try to be better at. I think that comes with a certain level of confidence. I think that comes with a certain level of just, you know, innate personality traits. But I also think being unapologetic is knowing what your goals are, knowing what's important to you, knowing what your values are. And so seeing that in other people, especially Serena, makes me want to be like that so much more. So does a quick rundown of who my heroes are Michael Schumacher, Amelia Earhart, Paul Newman and Serena Williams, on the famous level, we also have a lot of everyday heroes around us. And you know, for me, my mom and my dad are true heroes i So, so admire how they raised me and my siblings, I really admire how much they prioritize family time and being able to lean on each other, you know, my my siblings, and I FaceTime every week. And it was because my parents said when I went away to college, that we had to maintain our relationship and that we had to have actual conversations with each other every week. And we did that and it became natural, and we continue to be really great friends and, you know, their parenting is just so so impressive. In addition to living life really well and enjoying little things. My parents definitely taught me to appreciate the little joys and it's something that I find so precious, and keep with me, so mom and dad are, you know, heroes of mine. I have the utmost respect for first responders, doctors, nurses, people who keep us safe. You know, I can't imagine being in that line of work. I think it sounds extremely scary and not necessarily forgiving and kind of a thankless role in a lot of ways. And so they're heroes, and you know, being able to put other people first and doing what you have to do even if it's scary. That's so admirable. And other everyday heroes are my badass friends who you know, pursue their dreams and treat people with respect and who are are kind and who want to help others and who, you know, figure it out as they go. I just think all of this stuff is really, really admirable, and they are some of my everyday heroes. The last little thing I want to touch on when it comes to Heroes is that I really don't think that we need to consider our heroes perfect. I don't think anyone's perfect, I think there are plenty of things that we might not see that goes on with our heroes. And I don't think that people being flawed or people having things that you don't like about them means that they can also be your heroes. And I don't really feel like it's productive to point out the things I don't like about my heroes, but you know how some of them conduct themselves in interviews, I would take a different tone than that, or, you know, with my parents, let's say there are some things that I don't really want to do when I'm raising my kids in the future. So, but I'm saying all this just to illustrate that we can really admire certain things about people and use that as our guiding stars. So whether it famous or not, I think it's quite lovely when we're inspired by someone and want to live more like them. I also think that it's important to remember whether we are more prominent or not, that the way we're living and how we're carrying ourselves and how we actually the world might be being viewed by other people we never know who might see us or who might watch us or who might witness how we interact with other people and think, Ah, I want to be like them. And I think that's a really cool thing to think about that no matter who we are, we might be someone's hero, whether or not we know that. And piggybacking off of that, I think it's great when we tell people that we consider them a hero or a role model or somewhat aspirational, that kind of positive feedback can really make someone's day first of all, but also it shows how interconnected all people are and I'm big on community, I'm big on feeling like you're part of something bigger than yourself. And knowing that we might be having this positive impact on others, I find really warm and fuzzy and cozy. And I'm going to close out with a quote from Charles Caleb Colton. And he says imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I like to remember that when I'm looking at heroes when I'm trying to emulate things that I like, and knowing that that it's a really positive thing. And we love having aspirations. So now I'm quite curious as to who your heroes are. So if you want to let me know who you look up to, and who you consider a hero, by leaving a review wherever you listen to podcast or if you want to comment on one of my social media posts about this episode, I love learning about aspirational people whether they're famous or not. So we'd love to know who your heroes are. And that is our show. If you liked this episode, I hope you'll share it with someone who you care about. And obviously if you could subscribe to the podcast follow rated. I'd love that. And as always, thank you for letting me be honest with you and I look forward to speaking with you next week.