“The man who longs for some crisis in life, wherein he may show mighty courage, while he is expending no portion of that courage in bearing bravely the pretty trials, sorrows and disappointments of daily life, is living in an air-castle. He is just a sparrow looking enviously at the mountain crags where the hardy eagle builds her next, and dreaming of being a great bird like that, perhaps even daring in a patronizing way, to criticize her method of flight and to plume himself with the medals he could win for flying if he only would. It is the day-by-day heroism that vitalizes all of a man’s power in an emergency, that gives him confidence that when need comes he will and must be ready.” ~ William George Jordan
I am not typically prone to discuss sports, as I have always preferred being on the field and in the middle of the action to sitting in the stands or an armchair. That said, I had a most enjoyable conversation about football the other night, which, incidentally, is a sport I’ve neither played nor followed much. The fellow I was speaking with had played football in college and then coached high school football in Georgia for twenty years. As you can imagine, he knew a lot about the sport.
One story he told me stood out among the others. A player of his possessed phenomenal skills and despite the young man’s size (he was small by football standards), he had a good chance of being recruited to play at Auburn. Unfortunately Auburn’s recruiter also had his eye on another player who lived in Alabama, which gave him an advantage over the Georgia player.
The recruiter was due to make his decision and my new acquaintance was eager to convince him of his player’s worth. Fortunately, the player gave him a silver bullet the day before in the form of a masterful play that showcased his talent and demonstrated his grit. Luckily, someone in the audience captured his magical move on videotape. He insisted that the recruiter watch the tape and after doing so, the recruiter said without hesitation: “we’ll take him.”
Now I imagine that the young man who went on to play at Auburn and beyond had spent thousands of hours training and playing prior to this breakthrough and that his performance in that critical moment was the result of many well-planned and successfully executed small and seemingly unimportant moves and decisions. Life tends to work out that way. The quotidian is filled with mundane and not obviously significant details that are punctuated every so often by once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
I love Jordan’s phrase “day-to-day heroism” for this is the workshop of greatness. Giving your best in every moment, no matter how insignificant the circumstances at hand may appear, whether you are alone or with company and regardless of the expected return, puts you in position to handle the larger challenges and opportunities with ease and grace. The day-to-day hero goes the extra mile where most would cut corners, yet does so quietly, confidently and without affectation.
Every person must face the “petty trials, sorrows and disappointments of daily life,” and no amount of taking from the 1% and giving to the 99% will redress that uncomfortable (and I venture to say unnecessary and avoidable) reality. The change that must occur is incumbent upon the individual himself. When you learn that it is not what happens to you that matters, but how you handle what happens, you unlock the door to the library of wisdom and the halls of greatness.
There is no point in waiting for something big to come along to prove your theory about how great you are. “Greatness…,” as William Allen White once noted, “is an unusual quantity of a usual quality grafted upon a common man.” You have to start where you are. Greatness cannot be bought at auction, neither can it be won in the lottery. It comes as you do the work – take care of the basics! – each and every day.
“Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves – or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.” ~ Ayn Rand
Gregory Hake 
I have found over the years that Jordan is absolutely right. The day to day details are where you build greatness. This was definitely a lesson I had to learn the hard way, by not being ready for some of those opportunities when they arose. Fortunately, sometimes those opportunities come back around again, although not ever exactly the same.
I appreciate Jordan clarifying the type of air-castle where a person longs for an emergency so they can show their amazing abilities. This is one that I have seen before. I find this can become a little muddled, because it is absolutely OK to prepare for an emergency. However, the important word there is prepare. When you stop preparing in reality and only prepare in your imagination, you are building an air-castle. How do you prepare? By taking those day to day details and making sure they are done, even if they are not so glamorous. It is acceptable to imagine, but that can’t be the only thing you are doing.
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Great post. Just what I needed to read, thanks!
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Sometimes people will “rise to the occasion” and we love to see that. Still, for ourselves, we should not expect we will suddenly soar to the heights under pressure of circumstance. It is in the litlle ways day by day that greatness accumulates. Even if unsung, it is its own reward. Great post. Thanks!
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We get 24 hours each day to make a difference. When that’s our habit it’s not a surprise when we rise to the occasion. You don’t have to live in imagination, “how would I handle…( fill in a situation)”. How do handle it when someone hurts your feelings or you lose something or you miss the mark, or you get what you wanted? There’s our clues. Being able to depend on ourselves, feeling that I can take whatever comes with poise, dignity and the confidence of my experience doesn’t build a castle but a fortress. Thank you for this inspiring post.
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The 99% is our life. Today the 1% may give you your 15 minutes of fame but it’s the 99% where you build a real castle or an air castle. The term “air castle” fits the dream that has no effort put into it. Often you’ll hear it’s because someone else prevented them from reaching their potential. Living a life defined by how we handle the daily challenges, not by what the challenges are, puts the emphasis on the means that propels to an uncommon life, a life that builds structures that matter. I enjoy your daily thoughts, thanks.
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We certainly do have a skewed perception of what constitutes heroism. The mere fact that the idea of hero exists, conjured up in our collective imagination points to some extraordinary capability within us, and we are quick to applaud the heroic expression whenever made evident in real life for it does indeed awaken a sense of awe inside when you see it. Yet in the imagination, there is a feeling that the hero is a ‘super-mortal’, one who doesn’t share the traits of common man. Something unique to his birth or genetics or whatever – DC comics style. And so this puts it ever so out of our reach, and we may as well just dream about it for it’s a nice dream and can provide us many hours of entertainment.
I’m trying to point out the distracting element here, where if we have been led to believe this about ‘hero’, then the hero you speak about won’t be a possibility to us. If we indeed have a collective picture of a hero being one who consistently applies him or herself to the virtuous life, growing and refining his/her character through the successful daily dealings of the ‘mundane’, I would venture to say that when the grand opportunities arise to display the cumulative skill gained in the ordinary, we would see much more of the extraordinary. Makes sense to me.
Sport provides a perfect stage to display heroics and acts of great skill – it is simply amazing to appreciate the skill inherent within people and watch the many hours of practice all condensed into a small amount of time. Concert halls, symposiums, cinema, theatre. But living itself is a skill, at least living strongly, vibrantly, living to give your world the wonder of blessing consistently, even when faced with troubles. All the world’s a stage it’s been said, and I believe it. Every moment you have a chance to display what you’ve been practicing, and I salute the hero in all of us!
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