Heroes in Waiting

To understand completely the idea of “Heroes in Waiting”, we need to understand what does it mean. So what is Heroes in Waitind? It’s an idea Dr. Zimbardo is now actively promoting, with the development of the Heroic Imagination Project. Dedicated to creating ‘a global movement of everyday heroism. What it takes to be a hero? His latest endeavor involves fostering heroic imagination. He has noted that heroes are never going to follow to group norms and highlights the two core principles of heroism:
1. Heroes act when others are passive.
2. Heroes act sociocentrically, not egocentrically.
They act alone, and for the good of others. It also seems they don’t like to boast about their deeds. That is why we need to honor their stories and retell them when we hear about them. Dr. Zimbardo calls it Heroes in Waiting, and we need to be prepared. In his own words, we need to be “waiting for the right situation to come along, to put heroic imagination into action. Because it may only happen once in your life, and when you pass it by you’ll always know, I could have been a hero and I let it pass me by. So the point is thinking it and then doing it.”

So what’s stopping us all trying to be modern-day heroes? Partly, it is because we misunderstand the definition of what a true hero is in our day. For many children and adults, heroes are no longer those who do great things at great personal risk. Instead, being a celebrity is enough, or a positive role model or a powerful sports figure, etc. When true everyday heroes risk their lives every day saving people, like firefighters, police officers, doctors, teachers (who teach our kids every day so they become functional part of society), etc. Another thing that don’t let more people act heroically is a moral, in our day the understanding and moral of every individual is very thin.
So, can we teach heroism? According to Dr. Zimbardo the answer is yes. The key is to develop our ‘heroic imagination’, to visualize how we might act in the critical or dangerous moment, what dilemmas we might face, and how we would deal with them. By setting ourselves small challenges, we can develop a personal habit of bravery, which equips us for facing the real thing. Part of this strategy involves learning to develop our ‘discontinuity detectors’, an awareness of when something is wrong regardless of what the law or those around us are saying. The one of the most important things is to learn to ignore the social anxiety and learn to act.
Dr. Zimbardo's Heroic Imagination Project is suggesting that we are all 'heroes in waiting', and that we all have the potential to act heroically when called upon to do so. He stresses the importance of taking small steps, like complimenting someone every day, or not being afraid to ask for help. Heroism doesn't have to be dramatic. One way we can achieve this goal is by nurturing Heroic Imaginations, especially in our kids:
1) Encourage awareness. Heroes have a good sense of when people are in trouble. If we sense that things are a little bit out of place or don't fit, we can avert the danger before it happens, like stopping a bullying classmate.
2) Show kids they have the power to resolve conflicts. Teach kids that it's more heroic to resolve conflicts through dialogue than by fighting.
3) Foster action instead of inaction. It's easy to be a bystander when we see someone being bullied, but research shows that kids are more likely to do something if their parents and friends expect them to. In conclusion we can say that we all might have what it takes to be a hero. Some of us chose to act while other chose to wait or starting to panic. The important thing that Dr. Zimbardo taught us is that we all can be heroes, but we need to nurture this potential, teach our selves to act while others can’t, and teach our kids to do so.