This site has been focused on the hero’s journey and the lessons we can learn from it over the last couple of months. I’ve used my story as an example numerous times and pointed to movie men and women in other posts. I have also taught the journey to a thousand kids in the last month. I truly believe it’s an important model and one that, if understood, can provide a lot of support for us in our lives. Rather than muddle through our adventures, these fives steps give us perspective and an element of comfort.
The most important part of the journey is the change experienced by the hero. It is with this change, and the gained knowledge that comes with it, that allows the hero to change the world. We only change if we change our surroundings – if we leave the Mundane World. I’ve got it all worked out. After all, I teach this to kids all the time. And I mean it.
But I haven’t been going on any journeys lately.
Coming to America and then deciding to live here were big adventures for me and the change is evident. Ask my family in Australia if I’ve changed – they’ll back me up. Except those journeys ended at least ten years ago. I lived in the same small American town for 14 years! Now I’m in another one.
My kick in the pants came today when I watched a TEDx video by Colin Wright from Exile Lifestyle. His posts have become my most-anticipated lately and this one was a doozy. Colin realized that we only change when we go on adventures. We need to challenge ourselves to really make change. This is what I preach, but where’s the practice?
Colin’s suggestion was to imagine where you want to be and then plan backwards, taking one step back from the goal until you get to where you’re standing now – kind of the reverse hero’s journey. Chris Guillebeau said in a post on the Art of Non-Comformity, “My view is that the odds of life passing you by are much higher if you have no plan for life itself”. He’s talking about goals, just like Colin.
Chris and Colin challenge themselves. Chris is on his way to visiting every country in the world, Colin moves to a new country every four months. They’re not “going up North” every summer, or heading to Florida in the winter. They’re not playing it safe. They’re removing themselves from the Mundane World and traversing the Path of Trials. And they’re changing themselves and the world.
So guess what my family did today – we discussed goals. Karen and I talked about where we want to be and how we’re going to get there. Vienna mainly said, “doggie” and “baby”, which essentially meant she agreed with us. We need to go on adventures to create the change we want in our lives and ourselves.
I haven’t done anything scary for ten years. It’s time to get scared again.
Quest Work: (what is this?) Write down three things you’d like to do in your life. Now, write down what you will need to do to reach those goals. Share in the comments, as usual.
Planning adventures and new challenges is great. I’ve got a list that just keeps getting longer as time keeps passing, however, it’s the financial part that always seems to get in the way. I’m sure I’m not alone in this either. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who have plans for their own adventures but money doesn’t grow on trees. More times than not I feel that it’s the money that gets in the way of the adventure/challenge. How do you solve this problem?
That’s a good question Jessi. Adventures don’t have to cost money – vacations do.
I also think money is like time in this example. Everyone likes to say they don’t have enough money or time. If you wanted to you could find them. It’s a matter of priorities. Sacrifice something to get some of that money or time back.
I agree. There is always enough money and enough time to do what we really want. Check in with yourself and see if fear may be the culprit behind the real reason adventure has yet to begin. Fear has a strange way of disguising itself as logic. Here’s an example of some seriously creative thinking to own a home starting with one single red paperclip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE8b02EdZvw
I’ve struggled with the lack of funds things too. Finally I got tired of money being my excuse.
Just this morning I came across this in Steve Pavlina’s book “Personal Development for Smart People”.
“When you decide in advance that a lack of funds is an obstacle to achieving your goal (or adventure in this case), you disempower yourself. If you want something badly enough, target it directly. Your path may lead you to earn and spend money to get there, or it may not. Don’t automatically assume that money is necessary to achieve a particular goal; this narrows your options and stunts your creativity.
Thanks very much Kai. Pavlina’s point is right on (as usual).
Good for you to take on a new adventure. Where? I found you on Chris’ blog comments.
It’s more that I need to start getting uncomfortable again, rather than picking a specific destination. I want to start watching out for calls to adventure and accept some of them rather than ignoring them.
By the way love what you’re doing here. I am doing something similar but approaching it from an entertainment angle that can overflow into the real world if the viewer wants it to.
Perhaps we can collaborate at some point. Maybe you’d be interested in doing a guest post on whoischick when we’re back up after our redesign? I have been studying the hero’s journey for quite a while and use it often when exploring story ideas for the CHICK web series.
Thanks Kai – definitely let me know when the web series is back up. I am intrigued by what I’ve seen.