How do I know I am being called?

Embrace the Hero Within.

How do I know I am being called?

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.

A lot of us worry that we are not qualified to do what we are called to do. We put off getting underway in our journey because we need to know more, do more, get more first. When we get the knowledge and skills and equipment, then we will be ready for the call. BUT that is not how the call works. You do not have to be qualified to accept the call.

In church there is this saying, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” And that is exactly the kind of mindset I am talking about needing to start your journey. You do not need the whole journey mapped out for you. You do not need to know everything in advance. You do not need to see the destination in front of you to get started. All you need is to start.

Bilbo was not ready to leave his hobbit hole and neither was Frodo. Amari was forcibly taken into bondage. Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, and Rey Palpatine were not ready to leave their planet and take a journey across the galaxy. Whether by external or internal factors, the call found each of them unprepared for their journey. You will likely feel overwhelmed and unprepared for the journey ahead of you as well. BUT know that when your journey is aligned with your call, the world, the galaxy, the universe will align with getting you to your goal.

So, how do I know what my call is? Well, you need to listen to what makes you happy. What brings you joy? What is your reason for getting up each day and doing what you do? What exists in your life that makes everything meaningful? When you find the answer to that question. The answer to what you want for your life, then you will know the direction to travel.

The majority of my life has been devoted to writing and nature. That is my focus and that is my call. I sit down every morning working through my thoughts about how nature and the world are working within me to give me a better focus on what truly matters. I enjoy the stories of folks that set out with very little figured out and transform into heroes. Heroes that bring a greater knowledge back to us from out there on the road. And the great thing about the journey to me is the internal transformation that the hero undergoes in preparation for that knowledge. The hope that each of us can transform ourselves when we align our journey with our call. As Joseph Campbell would eloquently describe the feeling, he would mention the idea to, “Follow your bliss”.

I challenge you to align your thoughts with the journey of your life. I invite you to find the things that bring you meaning, those things that give you bliss. And I challenge you to follow that bliss wherever it leads. Listen closely and you just might hear the call?

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheHeroWithin

What is a hero?

Embrace the Hero Within.

What is a hero?

The term hero is tossed around in today’s society so much that I believe we are getting heroes and heroism all wrong. We’re taking away the mystique, the mystery, the mysticism, the spirituality out of being a hero. Instead of the hero being something heroic, we are making the hero into something rudimentary and common. We are taking away the special journey of the hero and the special actions that make the hero and replacing that with something common and ordinary. Heroes are not common and ordinary. Heroes are taking a journey to make a change in both themselves and the world into which they return.

So, what constitutes a hero today? Conformity. Today the term heroism is attached to folks merely following orders. Media toss this term to people simply doing their jobs. You get to be a hero for getting a paycheck and performing a function. Health professionals are heroes. Law enforcement officers are heroes. Teachers are heroes. Soldiers are heroes. Firefighters are heroes. We take professions that have the slightest instance of danger and make that interaction with death and danger what defines a hero.

The idea that what defines heroism is standing against death is nothing special. Everyone, daily stands against death. And we typically do that every day until we die. There is nothing heroic about just facing danger. Life is dangerous. Life is deadly. Life is not an easy thing even in the world of today. There are plenty of dangers that abound in this new savannah that are just as deadly and hard for us to see as the predators from thousands of years ago. Mainly because humans experienced these natural threats for thousands of years and our new threats are less than a thousand years old.

So, if there is nothing special about following orders or facing death, then what makes someone heroic? Is it the qualities of their character? There are many people that do great things with their lives. They are people that we should look to as an example. People that may become our mentors along the journey. BUT, this worship of other people is always a dangerous situation. More times than not, when we place our faith in other folks it is commonly misplaced, misused, and misintended. When we look for something external to make us whole and give us meaning, we lose sight of what truly makes us unique and our journey unique.

Maybe it is not so much the actions BUT within the qualities of heroism that we can define what makes a hero? A hero has a different journey from what the current system with its orders and hierarchy has set into motion. The hero has a responsibility to learn a special knowledge and bring that knowledge back to the current system. The hero has a responsibility to return with the hero’s new knowledge and the hero’s new understanding and integrate these into the system the hero left upon the hero’s return.

So, what is the hero’s journey and how is this journey different from following orders? The journey has five main components. A hero must hear the Call to Adventure and then act upon that call to Begin the Adventure. Once the hero goes forward into the journey, the hero will face a Road of Trials to test the hero’s resolve and transform the hero into someone worthy of receiving the special knowledge, the Ultimate Boon. Finally, the hero must Return with the special knowledge to the beginning or origin of the hero’s journey. These are the main steps that each hero must undertake whether the hero be one from history, from fiction, or from today. Heroes transform not only their self but also aid in the transformation of the system. The hero is not fighting against death, the hero is not following order or orders, the hero is not ever the same as a result of the journey and neither is the system into which the hero returns.

My direction over the next few weeks or however long this takes. Is to take the monomyth’s five key stages and examine how heroes of the past and literature undergo this journey BUT also how we can also undergo this journey. I aim at taking a deeper look at what heroism actually entails and dismiss the ideas of attaching heroism to conformity and order. I aim to make the hero mystery and mystique something unique and personal, something that we can all aspire and inspire within our lives.

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheHeroWithin