Air mask
Read time: 8 minutes
Finally. You are going on a new trip for the first time in a while. You and your spouse are incredibly happy because you’re going to your favorite place which is quite a long flight away.
Everything is going great. Your beloved falls asleep and go on to read long into the night.
4 hours into your flight you get woken up by the captain crying out: “Ladies and gentlemen, we experiencing heavy turbula…”.
The voice of the captain gets caught out, your spouse finally wakes up, extremely confused, the plane is shaking heavily and air masks drop right away from the ceiling. What do you do?
Do you put your own mask, do you put the mask for your spouse, do you put the mask on the child next to you?
If you’ve ever taken a flight and actually listened to what the stewardess teaches you, you will know that the right call is ALWAYS to put your own mask first.
But why is that?
Why would you save yourself instead of the person you care for the most?
Why would you save yourself instead of your own child?
Why in the world would you go out of the way to seek and apply the mask on yourself first?
The answer: You need to save yourself before you can save others.
I repeat. You need to save yourself before you can save others.
Why you need to be your own hero before you become the hero of others
What do you think of when you hear the word “hero”?
I’d imagine you think of someone with a striking figure, someone who looks and is really strong, but there is also another element.
Imagine for a second that you were being cornered and robbed on a shady street.
Out of nowhere, there comes your savior… Except he isn’t really a hero.
He does end up taking the attention off you, but you both end up beaten to death and you both end up getting robbed.
Think of this hero’s life.
Think of his day to day hurdles.
Do you think that when this so called “hero” encounters a real threat he is able to fend for himself?
I do not believe so.
Why, then would we go out of our own ways to “help others” when we can’t even help ourselves?
I am NOT saying that you shouldn’t be the hero for someone else.
What I AM saying is that you need to be a hero for yourself before you can be a hero to others.
You need to solve your own problems before you go about solving others’.
You should be your own best friend before you can really be the best friend for someone else.
You ought to fix yourself first, before you fix others.
You MUST take care of yourself before you can take care of others.
Why helping yourself is NOT selfish
As I said beforehand with the hero situation, it is definitely NOT selfish for you to take care of yourself first.
You need to understand that in order to have real and big impact on others, on the causes you care about and on society you need to make yourself well first before you can make others well.
The story is not about you, it is about getting to a point where you can make huge contributions towards what you care about.
Obviously, you are the one to see most of the benefits.
You getting in shape obviously has YOU getting most of the benefits, such as the better health, the better quality of life, the longer life span, but you did it in order to be able to better contribute to the cause you care about (protecting and helping your loved ones).
You getting rich obviously benefits the levels of “free time” you can afford, where and how you travel and most likely your standing on the social ladder… But the fact that you have gained financial independence allows you to donate much more money to charity, to do more acts of good, to focus your efforts into the things that need your help much more.
You taking time off and focusing on yourself, your goals and your mental/physical health is by no means selfish. It gives you the strength, focus and energy to getter use your resources whenever you tackle the problems you care about.
When do you start focusing on others instead of yourself?
Now that’s quite a big question.
There is never a “right” or “wrong” answer.
I can’t really tell you “when” is the time to help others.
Is it really worth it investing 80+ hours a week of your time into that charity where you are not paid?
You have to balance your options for yourself.
You have to think about how everyone can do most with your resources.
The only thing I CAN tell you is that you do not need to be a millionaire to start donating to charity.
You do not need a law degree to protest for what you believe in.
There is no need to spend months upon months of only NGO work, a day a week may be enough.
I hope you will remember that the best way to be a superhero for others is to be a superhero for yourself.
Go on and make yourself proud before you make others proud!