Idols

If I were to ask you who your idols were when you were growing up, I’d imagine you’d have a pretty decent list of various characters through your early years.

For me, I think back to the early days of Saturday morning cartoons and their obvious, heavy influence they had on me and my life.

He-Man, Optimus Prime, Leonardo, the X-men, Spider-man and Snake Eyes an impressive list of heroes just off the top of my head.

Characters who were shown to face adversity and lead from the front. Those that were willing to make mistakes and be open about their character and development.

The writers of these characters seemingly in touch with what was needed for a young child to see and learn how to build their own character based off what they were seeing.

Facing adversity that seemed insurmountable and yet always at the end of the show, they would be victorious.

But, facing this adversity, the writers were able to show the growth in the character, that things aren’t always perfect but they do seemingly work out in the long run and help you develop along the way.

I’m not saying I understood any of this at eight years old, I think I would say it’s pretty obvious not, but in some part of me, the messages obviously sank in to my psyche.

I had someone I could look to for lessons on how to think, what to aim for, more importantly, how to feel.

Modelling myself on my favourite heroes doesn’t seem like a bad idea really  and this is what got me on to this post today.

I asked my son who is his idol or who does he look up to, expecting an answer similar to what I would have given when I were his age. I was just curious and wanting to be able to form an even deeper connection with him and understand him more.

I asked him the question and he replied

“You Dad”

And without meaning to be too ‘Brentish’ it really took me aback.

The reason for the question was that I had been thinking that my son doesn’t watch Saturday morning cartoons, they aren’t a thing anymore. Cartoons, if kids watch them now, can be an anytime thing.

But I think it’s rare they watch at all and not many seem to follow any kind of hero’s journey.

These writers of the past, as simple a premise a lot of the stories may have been, were very skilled in their craft and the obvious influence from different genius work from a plethora of material, spawned by generations of literary geniuses, spirituality and philosophers like the Stoics, Buddhists and writings of Joseph Campbell, Shakespeare, Homer, an exemplary list.

But nowadays it seems many of our children find their hero’s on YouTube, in ‘idols’ not much older than themselves.

They don’t look to Optimus Prime making a sacrifice to lead his Autobots.

They see a YouTuber screaming at his pc screen

They don’t see Lion-O take the mantle of leader of the Thundercats as a teenager.

They see another child on Tik Tok opening toy eggs with gifts inside.

True, they can relate, but they’re not often being shown the greatest character traits.

So I think it important we provide those role models, not only for our own children, but for others too.

As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.

As a coach I understand my responsibility towards leading others to their best, to show their capacity for greatness and I think we all owe that to every child.

To aim to help them see the character traits that many of us were so fortunate to grow up with.

Autobots, roll out.

Ps as a side note, I don’t intend to be sexist, but I didn’t watch the female hero’s very often, so I am sure you’ll be able to replace my characters mentioned with the ones who inspired you.