Bigger than ourselves

Aurelian Victor Cotuna
Nov 4 · 4 min read

“We are more fulfilled when we are involved in something bigger than ourselves.” ― John Glenn

Making every situation about You, doesn’t help anybody. It only transforms you into a victim.

Often when we are stuck in some impossible situations, one of the best way to create opportunity or to find a different approach is to shift our mindset. We should try to shift our narrative from “How can I fix this for myself so that I…” to “How can I, at least, make this better for other people?

Bigger than ourselves

On September 1965, while he was flying on a mission over Vietnam, a United States Navy pilot named James Stockdale had to eject from his Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, because he was under enemy fire and completely disabled. He parachuted into a small village.

Photo by Stéphane Vermeulin on Unsplash

He knew what to expect… imprisonment, torture and maybe even death. He was taken by the enemy troops and severely beaten. Stockdale was kept as a prisoner of war in infamous Hanoi Hilton, for the next seven and a half years. In the terrible prison camps of that war, it was common that every man would fight for himself, simply to stay alive.

Being the highest ranked commander, he knew that he couldn’t do anything about his fate. As a superior rank commanding officer, he could help other US military that were kept there as hostages. He knew he had the power to change the situation and not allow the history to repeat. Even if he was tortured routinely and denied medical attention for the severely damaged leg he suffered during his landing, Stockdale managed to create and enforce a code of conduct for all his man in the prison.

In the summer of 1969, while being tortured and beaten, he was told by his captors that he was to be shown in public. However, he decided to hurt himself and bumped his head in the wall so hard that his face was swollen beyond recognition. He was protecting his man, fighting for a bigger purpose than himself. No pain could change that.

Stockdale managed to organize the prisoners and gave them strength to fight against the captors and endure torture for many years. He wanted to make their life better, to solve their problems, having a higher purpose. When we think about how our actions can benefit others, when we try to see what good can come out of that situation, we become stronger. The thing is that pride and confidence can be broken. Even toughness has its limits. But the desire to help others, camaraderie and a higher purpose, cannot be broken.

Most people suffer from this type of myopia that convinced them that they are in the center of the universe. In reality, there is a world beyond our personal experiences and feelings, filled with people who have dealt with worse than ourselves. We are not special or unique simply because we are alive. We become unique when we chose to land a hand and solve a problem in our own way.

In this short life that we have, we should try to contribute a little bit, before the time swallows us up. Lending a hand to others make you strong and determined, builds a strong mindset

Photo by Aurelie Tack on Unsplash

Are you driven by a higher purpose?

When was the last time you solved a problem for somebody else? Why did you do it? How did it make you feel?

Your turn

Through this article series called “Minutes Mindset,” I’m helping you build a solid mindset, writing my point of view on different subjects that we meet in our day by day life. I am a strong believer that once we can understand a subject, we can engage with the idea or refuse it altogether. Both ways are helping us grow and develop our own way of seeing the world.

If you like my work, clap on it, share it with your friends and follow me.

In the end, everything starts with us, with our mind, our self, and even our stories. We can choose to act or Not.

If your fitness trainer can help you get fit in the gym, I will help you get a fit Mindset. Let’s connect on Medium, Linkedin, Twitter and share some Ideas

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