17 Dec 2025 · 2 min
Brian Johnson on the daily choice between victim and hero. Victims complain about what happens to them. Heroes choose agency and recommit to mastery. A single question can shift the frame.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another arete one degree, one of 451 micro chapters from Activate youe Heroic Potential, organized around the seven objectives of our heroic coach training program, Victim vs Hero. What will it be? Not too long ago, we had a little chat about the dojo decision in which I challenged you to consider when whether you're going through the motions or going for mastery. As we discussed, there's a big difference in how we approach life when we're all in on being our best. We also talked about the choice of Hercules and his decision to follow the goddess of virtue, Arete, rather than the goddess of vice dressed up as happiness. Know this. Those decisions and choices aren't a make it once and you're done forever kind of thing. Or we're constantly being asked by life how we're going to show up and we need to constantly recommit to being our best selves over and over and over again. Which leads us to the ultimate choice we're going to make. Are we going to be victims? Or are we going to be heroes? Because to state the obvious, the world has way more than enough victims complaining and blaming and criticizing, and is in desperate need of more heroes who refuse to give up their last and ultimate freedom to choose to show up as powerfully as they can in the face of life's adversity. So what will it be? Victim or hero? That is the ultimate question. Again, this is not a I'm a hero one and done kind of thing. It's a moment to moment to moment, all day, every day kind of thing. How do we make the shift from victim t Hero? One simple question will do the trick. And that's the focus of our next plus one degree.
