Re-engineer your fears and thrive in everything with you put your mind to
What if I told you that you can hack life to give you exactly what you want?
What if I told you that there are patterns you can use to crush any challenge you face and get the best possible outcome?
Would you want to master them?
Yes? Then keep reading!
Being able to succeed in any challenge or circumstance we desire to change is something we all want to do, that’s a fact. And there are many ways in which you can attempt to master the different challenges we are presented in life, and your answers or strategies will depend on the nature of this challenge your education, gender, cultural background, values, etc. Hence every person might have a different solution to the same problem.
But what if I tell you there’s a pattern that is common to every human being when facing a challenge, regardless of his background, knowledge, values or nature of the challenge? This pattern is called the Hero’s Journey and can be used as a “hack” that can help you do anything you need to support your dreams and desires while you witness them become a reality.
So what’s the Hero’s Journey?:
It is an archetype about how we live our life. Basically a model or prototype on how to embrace change in life.
What happens in it?: The hero (You) hears a call to start an adventure the same way we have a desire to do or feel something: studying X or Y at university, becoming an entrepreneur, getting a new job, getting married (or not), having children (or not), moving to a new country, etc.
Where do you find the Hero’s Journey?: Everywhere!
This archetype/model is in every decision we make to embark in new adventures, change the current status of things or do something we aren’t comfortable with. It is pretty much the core of how life goes.
The hero’s journey is really everywhere!, and It was created by Joseph Campbell, a philosopher who started studying basically every hero’s life in history (from Jesus to Gandhi) and identified the pattern.
It is highly used in movies to represent the transition of a character from one state to another. It showcases the challenges that a hero faces in the journey to get to the end result. For example in “The Lord of the Rings”, Frodo accepts the call to destroy the ring and embarks into an adventure to do so. In Star Wars, each character has it’s own journey, and of course, in fairy tales like Cinderella, Snow White, Mohana, Elsa, each has to face a particular challenge and succeed at the end. Well, in the movies the hero always succeeds, doesn’t (s)he?
The archetype has a series of states that represent decision-making points or circumstances we face in the process of adventuring into something new and, as per “The 100 Day Promise: A Guide To Changing From The Inside Out” book that my friend and coach Sandi Amorim wrote, they include the following 12 states:
1.- The Ordinary w
2.- The Call to Adventure: The Hero’s adventure begins when receives a call to action and decides to accept it. (S)he can also refuse to take it.
3.- Meeting the Mentor: The hero has accepted the call but acknowledges that needs guidance, a mentor that can turn the light on the right direction to disperse doubts and gain the courage to begin the quest.
4.- Crossing the Threshold: once the hero has decided (or being pushed) to begin a new adventure to change something, (s)he has to pass through the door of what’s known to the unfamiliar, the unknown.
5.- Tests, Allies and Enemies: Out of the comfort zone, the hero has to face different challenges and tests (obstacles of any kind). (S)he needs to proof the willingness to complete the quest and not to give up (that’s the key!). In the process (s)he will find supporters and detractors that will show the hero things about him/herself (s)he probably didn’t know.
6.- Approach to the Inmost Cave: this can represent many things, a physical location where there’s a terrible danger for the hero or an inner conflict in regards to the situation (s)he wants/need to change. While going through it, (s)he has to do final preparations before taking the “leap of faith” to the unknown. At this stage, (s)he might face doubts and fears and some time to reflect and
7.- The Ordeal: this represents a physical or inner test (s)he must face to survive, or for his/her world to remain as is. At this stage, the hero needs to use his/her skills and experience gathered in the previous phase to overcome the challenge, be “re-born” and reach the reward. This is the highest point of the journey, if (s)he fails the chances of “dying” or his/her world change completely (maybe not for good) are really high.
8.- The reward: After the whole journey (facing fears, defeating the enemy, surviving death) the hero experiences an ultimate transformation into a new state, stronger and with a treasure (an object, a new job, house, more power, a secret, reconciliation in a relationship, an ally, etc.) and it is usually followed by a celebration.
9.- The road back (return home): to return the ordinary world with the new treasure, the hero has to do the last push to find the way back, and sometimes that implies choosing between personal objectives or a higher cause.
10.- Resurrection: At the climax of the journey, the hero has a final encounter with “dead”. This final “battle” represents usually something greater than his/her own existence, affecting his/her life and the people around.
11.- Return to the Elixir: This is the final stage after the hero has returned home, grown as a person and looking forward to starting a new life. His return can have an impact on others who might receive a direct solution, find the story as a source of inspiration or bring a new perspective. The final reward represents change, success and proof of the journey. His/her enemies will be punished and the allies rewarded. The hero will return to where (s)he started being a new version of him/herself.
12.- The call: The story begins again. Do you want to change anything in my life right now? If yes, the story initiates. Think about your new year’s resolution, the last time you tried to initiate a diet, save money for vacations, declutter your house for good, etc. Everybody wants to change something (almost) every day. Once you have accepted the call and embrace the change your hero’s journey begins, whether you successfully overcome all the stages or not.
So, now you know about the 12 steps you go through, now what?
Very simple, use them to your favour to get anything you want!
If every challenge or change that you face goes through these stages, recognize at which stage you are on every decision you’ve made lately to start something new or change something you don’t like.
This will help you recognize where are you standing and what are the things you need to do to get to the next phase.
Break that change down into pieces, put it in front of you and ask yourself: what is it require of me at this stage? Have I accepted the call? Is it time to ask for help? Am I at the point where I need a mentor or an ally? Do I need to reflect more on this and learn something about me to be able to move forward? What happens if I quit, what happens if I postpone it? And if I fail, what are the consequences? But If I succeed, what are the consequences? Get the idea?
See the beast (the challenge) directly into the eyes, befriend it, dance with it, understand it and conquer it!
The benefit of doing this is simple: breaking down something that can be overwhelming into smaller pieces so you can manage what’s going on and see the beast (the challenge) directly into the eyes, befriend it, dance with it, understand it and conquer it!
That’s where the hack is, in knowing what’s going on! And by this, I mean, knowing where are you standing. Maybe you don’t know the answer to the challenge yet, but understanding the stage where you are at, and knowing how you move to the next stage, gives you an idea of what’s required of you, and with it, you can start creating your own strategies, take ownership, understand what’s required of you, and what do you still need to learn to get to the desired point.
The hero’s journey gives you the certainty that everything will be fine because you know what’s next. And nothing defeats fear better than CERTAINTY. Because, even when you can’t see how things will end, you know what the next step will be. Once you’ve reached it, you’ll know what the following step will be, and so on. By the time you have reached the 11th stage, you know another call is waiting. It’s that simple!
But, Beware! You can be at different stages on your Hero’s journey for diverse challenges at the same time. Life is not that straight forward after all… Whether you are changing jobs, moving into a different level of your love relationship, losing a family member, getting a dog, etc., success in each area of your life will depend not only on how committed you are on getting to the end result you’ve projected but also on understanding where you are standing in your challenge and how you are going to manage that stage at that particular moment in time.
And you, what’s the challenge you’re facing
Leve me a comment below and happy journeying, (S)Hero!