What does a new-age superhero look like?

I know what Marvel tells us they should look like, but if we were to design a brand new superhero archetype, it would look completely different for me.

To me, a new-age superhero would be constantly learning. Constantly teaching. Constantly giving away value. A positive force at all times. Willing to take risks and enable others. A catalyst.

So the question is, what does a new-age superhero look like to you?

(Header photo: S is for Sexy Superhero by Karla K)

If you looked just at my blogs, you’d get a different picture depending on what you were reading:

• A Psychotic Millennial just looking for a little peace, love, and career satisfaction by teaching millennials how to build a smarter resume…
• A Trekkie who loves Star Trek enough to make a WordPress skin out of it…
• A not-so-successful entrepreneur (so far)…
• A podcasting, audio-drama-creating, creative mad scientist…
• A social networker making the life of college students a lot easier…
• A highly-competent web programmer who is also a super-star at website design…
• A nerdish web programmer who has his hands in all sorts of stuff from social media and social networking to marketing and design

I started looking at words, tags, SEO, pictures, and content.

I began to think about how to make people laugh, how to get the best response, and how to be true to myself.  Online and off.

I started to think about my networks and what messages I was sending them… or if all the little pieces of myself coalesed into something that was closer to who I really am.  I started to think about how I live my life, who I interact with, the projects that I take on, and what’s important to me.

The more I play in the world of social media, the more I like it  – the more I feel like a real person and not just a college grad with a string of jobs behind him. The more I play, the bigger this sinking feeling gets and I ask myself, “What do I want to be in a year?  In two?  Where do I want to be?  What do I want to be doing?”

I can think of a few things I want to do in the meantime: make myself my own superhero, continue to make people laugh, maybe figure out what I’m really supposed to be doing before I turn 25.

Who doesn’t want to be a Superhero?

So I decided today that I want to be a Superhero.  You know, mild mannered (kindof) by day, slaying demons and singing songs about heroics and glory by night… or at least a really kick-ass Karaoke version of Don’t Stop Believin’.   Yeah Journey.

If you know me, and chances are pretty good if you’re reading my blog – you know I’m crazy creative.  I don’t like tooting my own horn or being pretentious, I just like making people laugh.  What’s a better way to make people laugh than creating and becoming your own Superhero?

Some of you are going, “Jeeeze… this guy’s freakin nuts.”  But I know some of you are thinking, “Where the hell do I sign up?”  Most of you were thinking, “Oh no, he’s going to start his ‘lets wear tights’ phase.”  Not true.

Anyway, more details on that later.

Last night at the GitNit Right meeting, I talked in front of 9 Interns.  I informed them all that they were no longer Interns; they were now part of a Tribe.

It’s an interesting concept, and one that I whole-heartedly believe in.  More and more, corporations are treating employees like cannon fodder… or at least like clock-watching Internet zombies who can’t think for themselves, let alone speak or act for the good of the company.  The only defense against such nonsense is to instill a sense of self-worth and identity into ourselves.  We should each know that if we’re giving up our time on this earth to go do something, we’d better be getting more than just a paycheck – it had better mean something.

It has to.

Speaking of which, since I’d like a little more time on this Earth, I’m also going to be starting a section of this blog on my attempt to get back to a healthy weight.  Right now I’m at 250+… which you couldn’t guess from looking at me, but I definitely feel it.  This isn’t going to be easy for me.  I’m not even sure I can make it fun, but I’m going to try, dammit!  I’ve got a Wii Fit, which I was using… and then laziness took over, or a sense of being buried in projects… so, no more.  I always have at least a ten minute stretch during the night or the morning where I at least *think* about exercising and decide it’s too hard.

All I know is I have to be better.  So I will.