Do you suffer from Superhero Syndrome?

The need to come out triumphant in life?

When things are challenging and become impossible, all dares to fall apart. You summon powers you didn’t know you had and make it anyway—last minute. Save the day, save your world.

What a triumph, what a victory. Oh, it feels so good to be the hero in your story. I love it—what a kick.

When you notice that you have a regular crisis that you need to eradicate and your default is to become the hero- you too might be running on the Superhero Syndrome. It’s great to be a hero. You look good as a hero. It feels good to come out as the hero. But it’s freaking exhausting. I am talking crash and burnout exhausting.

And the more you attach to needing to be the hero, the more you’ll find you set yourself up for drama, crisis, and world-saving- life is very stressful that way. For what? And does the world care about your heroism? Probably not.

When I get my kids to school on time, I tell you, it feels like a freaking achievement. I think I deserve fanfares. But it turns out nobody cares how I did it in the end. Every morning I battle through resistance, tantrums, wars over what to wear (ehm it’s a school uniform), spilt milk, water fights, the let-mummy-do-her-yoga, and the unexpected last-minute toilet break.

And when we finally rush to the car and get strapped in - yes, you can have your toy in a minute, just sit back and let me fit that seatbelt. We are late, what’s new, sit still! - and then get annoyed about the traffic build-up and the race against the clock vs. closing school gate, when we were lucky enough to find parking and get in just as the gate was going to close - oh, the victory. Yay! Another triumph. I can’t even post on Facebook about it.

One could argue - get your routine sorted. Just get ready a bit earlier and eliminate the stress. We all have to get our children to school on time. It’s not that big a thing; most achieve it at some point.

I suffer from Superhero Syndrome, but there is another way. It’s the sunflower model. Turn to the sun. Lean towards the things that feel good and support you. Superhero to Sunflower. 🌻