Day 361 - The Unexpected Failure of the Superhero

What is it that makes super-hero movies so appealing, when in fact they have the most predictable storylines of all the movies out there?

For me the part I enjoy and look for, is the aspect of pushing beyond one’s limitations. If you take any of the superhero movies, the common structure of all the stories is that the superhero will be faced with a challenge that is beyon his capacities – something that he has not faced yet.

In other words the superhero has to completely step out of his comfort zone and give it all he or she’s got and even more – to be able to surmount the challenge he or she is faced with.

The superhero in effect has to move through „the eye of the needle“ in order to succeed.

The one thing that is perhaps artificial within this story line is that the viewer is already expecting the super hero to succeed. Somehow, failure is not quite possible or highly unlikely.

I would say that in real life situations, the risk of failure is much more real and pertinent. In other words, in real life there are actually no guarantees to succeeding at something – whereas in superhero movies this guarantee seems to be implicit (because we paid for seeing the superhero succeed and not for seeing him fail isn’t it?).

I would say that in real life situations it is not so much about achieving the result that is perceived to be ‚success‘ but about walking through one’s limitations regardless of the actual result. To give a practical example: A week ago me and my partner were scheduled to participate in a flea market in the city. This is something we have often done in the past and we have always done it together. But on the day of the fea market, unexpectedly my partner was ill, and we had already paid a reservation cost to participate in the fleamarket. At this point I was ready to walk away from doing the fleamarket regardless of the money I had already paid – yet when we dicussed this together the point came up of: why don’t I go alone? At first I dimissed this idea because of the perception that ‚this is not my thing‘ – yet when looking at it again there was a little flame in me that lit up. I saw that it could actually be interesting for me to do it alone as a way to test myself. I then stated to my partner that I would go by myself and we were both happy with this decision. I went by myself as a means to create a little adventure and to push myself out of my comfort zone. It was indeed a lot of work because of having to find a spot to park the car and then unload all the items to my selling location and then setting up everything – but it worked out fine and I could get going with selling our stuff. In fact I did not sell a lot on that day. I just made enough money to cover for the reservation cost which from an „investment“ perpective would have meant that the fleamarket was a failure – but for me it wasn’t, because I found satisfaction in the fact that I had simply pushed myself to do something that I would normally not have done and that I could show to myself that i am able to act independently.

This is why process is not about ‚the picture‘ as ‚success‘ but about self-honesty and doing what is best for all and best for self.   

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