The first stage of the Hero's Journey is Departure. Within the Departure stage are several steps. The first of these steps is The Call to Adventure. This step finds the hero's normal life disrupted. Something changes; the hero faces a problem, obstacle, or challenge.
The first step in embracing your own heroism is accepting the change. Your normal routine needs disruption. Every person has the choice of remaining the same and ignoring the call. Every person has the choice of embracing the change and answering the call. This is the option of the hero.
Say yes to the disruption? Say yes to the change?
Listen. If you listen closely to not only the sounds of life but the flow of life, then you will start to hear it. Does it sound like vast quantities of water tumbling over a precipice onto the rocks below? Does it sound like the gentle tumbling of leaves across pavement on a cool day? Does it sound like a loved one singing in the kitchen while preparing a meal? Does it sound like the breeze passing outside your bedroom window?
Whatever the call sounds like, the call wants you to answer. The call wants you to begin your adventure. The call wants you to embrace the change. The call wants you to become a hero.
Listen closely and you just might hear the call?
Once you hear the call it is natural to refuse the call. It is the second step in embracing your own heroism. In the Refusal of the Call, the future hero often refuses to accept the Call to Adventure. The refusal my stem from a sense of duty, obligation, fear, or insecurity. At first, the hero is reluctant to accept the change. Usually this reluctance presents itself as second thoughts or personal doubt. Hesitation, whether brief or lengthy, humanizes the hero.
Heroes are reluctant to accept change but find the courage. Can you find that courage as well?
Once you’ve accepted the call, probably the most difficult part of embracing your inner hero, the journey can commence. We begin our adventure by leaving our world of routine and comfortability to venture into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown.
As you begin to embrace the hero within, you finally accept the call and begin a physical, spiritual, and/or emotional journey to achieve a boon, something that is helpful or beneficial.
Now that you’ve answered the call. You can put in the work to achieve the Ultimate Boon. Whatever this goal, it is yours as long as you listen to the call and embrace the adventure.
I want to talk about the Ultimate Boon because it sometimes gets overlooked or taken for granted as the natural end to the Hero’s Journey. The Ultimate Boon is usually a physical object to which is also attached a code of conduct or moral that the hero must learn.
But what we sometimes fail to consider about the Ultimate Boon is that the hero must incorporate this lesson into his or her life.
This is the point I think is often overlooked and understated. As you begin your journey, remember that you will learn something new and important, however, it is a knowledge not for you alone.
You need to incorporate that knowledge, that boon, into your life so that others might see that truth, that knowledge, that self in you.
#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain
Now that you have accepted the Call, the time arrives to depart the world of your routine, the world of comfort, the world of normalcy and embark on the journey.
You will face experiences and with the purpose of transformation. These experiences will consist of trials, tests, tasks, or challenges. Do not be concerned about winning or passing all of these obstacles. You will experience failure as well.
The obstacles and challenges will also become increasingly difficult as your journey continues. Take comfort in knowing the Road of Trials is necessary for you to grow and learn. It is not simply about winning or defeating every problem. The journey is a learning process, a time for growth and reflection.
Persevere through the trials as they create a person worthy of the Ultimate Boon.
On your journey, many will find fault with your break from the routines of your past. Many will find fault with you for wanting to be more, be better, be whole. But others will come to your aid.
During your Road of Trials, you will also find an Experience With Unconditional Love. You will find support physically and/or mentally from a friend, family member, mentor, and or someone else. This unconditional love can help you continue on the journey, even when you doubt yourself.
Look for those that are there to offer aid and, despite your ego, take their help. Your journey needs what they offer. Your growth is dependent upon you taking the help. Their aid is not just one of healing for you but of growth for you both.
Persevere through the trials with the unconditional love of another as these experiences create a person worthy of the Ultimate Boon.
As your Initiation into this change ends, you will earn the Ultimate Boon. The boon can be a physical object or an intangible item, such as knowledge, courage, or love. The Road of Trials has given you the strength to achieve this goal.
You have gained what you set out to achieve, however, the journey is not over. Feel satisfaction in embracing your goal, but there are still things left to do.
When the goal of the adventure is accomplished, you may refuse to return with the boon or gift, either because you doubt the return will bring change or because you prefer to stay in a better place rather than return to a normal life of pain and trouble.
Sometimes you will not want to look back after achieving the boon. Sometimes the “new world “ is better.
But, to complete your journey you must return and teach. This is not an easy step and one that is often taken with reluctance. Returning is not easy and teaching those that have not undertaken the journey is difficult.
You will experience adventure and perhaps danger as you return to life as it was before the Call to Adventure. For some, the journey “home”, whether psychological or physical, can be just as dangerous as the journey out. Forces may keep you from returning.
Remember that you have already gained your goal. You achieved the Ultimate Boon. Anything that challenges you now is insignificant when compared to the change you have undergone and the victory you already achieved.
Finish your journey and bring your wisdom back “home”.
Just as you may need guides and assistance on the quest, oftentimes these powerful guides and rescuers can help bring you back to everyday life. Sometimes you may not realize that it is time to return, or even that you can return, or that others are relying on your return.
Just as it looks as if you will not make it home with the boon, you will find the help you need to get you home. The rescuer is sometimes the same person who provided love or support throughout the journey.
We’ve reached the end of your journey. At this final point in the adventure, you must retain the wisdom gained on the quest, integrate that wisdom into your previous life, and perhaps decide how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.
The final step is the story’s resolution, when you return with the boon. Incorporate your boon into your old life and make a deeper meaning. Be the change you want to see in the world.
