Often overstated Legends and Idols have always played apart in culture. There's one for every archetype; The Lover, The Fighter, The Leader, etc. I myself in the past have held idols almost too dearly, like gospel. As I get older I've started to deconstruct many of the Idols I've attempted to emulate.
My first run in with this confliction was at 14. I'd just discovered Nirvana, binge watching every interview of Kurt Cobain available. A member of the 27 club, taking a shot gun to his own head in his Seattle home and committing suicide. As we all know there's so much glorification around artists that die young, martyrs of their message. He spoke so deeply in his interviews, casting word spells on a younger version of myself. After months of hanging on every word of his I came to my senses. I remember thinking why would I listen to anything this cunt says, his perspective was burdened by chronic pain, a deep depression and a heroin addiction. It was then when I started deconstructing a lot of who these people actually were and how much weight their words held in reality.
My second more recent conflict with Legend and Idols is with the Hard Work/Fighter Archetype. Spread across many individuals but to name a few; Michael Jordan, Kobe, David Goggins, Kanye, the list never ends. This idea of overwork to a point of impracticality. I was interested to find out Jordan actually only trained an extra 2 hours a day whereas Kobe would train 8 hours. Amazing considering from a public perspective with treat them as if they have a shared mindset but they were very much different. I have no interest in being a Kobe as amazing as the idea of training 4x more then Micheal Jordan is, to me it seems like more of a mental validation then actual practicality. There is a point of diminishing returns, especially when you consider that Michael Jordan got similar/better results doing less. A closer to home example is stories I would hear about Kanye working on "the perfect hoodie" for 5+ years. Mate just work out what you want and make it. Save yourself millions in payroll and sampling.
It seems obvious but the conclusion I'm sure many people come to is taking aspects of these legends we idolise, combine the best aspects of each individual to identify who you want to be. I've come out the other side of these last few years working hard to a point of impracticality. I now know that hard work muscle is there if I ever need it but I don't plan on letting that consume me or be my whole identity. Now I can move forward into taking traits from new archetypes and legends.
