The Hero’s Journey

Did you know that you are a hero? You might be thinking that a hero is someone who rushes into a dangerous situation to save others. And you might be thinking to yourself that I’ve lost the plot – unless of course, you have rushed into a dangerous situation and saved others.

Hero’s come in all shapes and sizes. And we all get to be the hero of our own story. Your life is your blank canvas. You get to paint any story you want. We all have spiritual curriculum to complete here on earth. We are all here to learn something; to grow something in ourselves. When you heed the call, you become the hero of your own story. When you don’t heed the call, you avoid the journey that would make you the hero of your own story.

The movie Finding Joe talks about the American author and editor, Joseph Campbell, whose work on comparative mythology examined the universal functions of myth in various human cultures, and mythic figures in a wide range of literatures. Campbell concluded that across all mythologies from various human cultures, there is one common thread that these stories all share. He called it The Hero’s Journey.

The Hero’s Journey is a popular form of structure derived from Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth from his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. It describes a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions. It was also adapted by Christopher Vogler into the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey. The twelve stages essentially describe the process an ordinary person would go through, to become a hero.

My encouragement is that your life is an open invitation to embark on your own hero’s journey. Let’s look at the twelve stages of the hero’s journey and I’ll explain…

The 12 Stages of The Hero’s Journey

Stage 1: Ordinary World

The story begins in the Ordinary World. It is the world where the Hero of the story exists before their journey begins. In the first stage, the Hero is still oblivious of the adventures to come. We learn crucial details about the Hero from their everyday life – things like their capabilities and outlook on life. This stage reminds us that the Hero is human, just like you and me. Heroes are ordinary people who choose to embark on a personal transformation. When they start out, they are no different to any other person. This reminds us that each one of us is capable of embarking on a Hero’s journey.

As I mentioned, we all have spiritual curriculum to complete here on earth. We all have our version of the hero’s journey to live, because none of us are born having fully accomplished all that we can learn and create. We embark on this earthly existence for the opportunity to learn, grow, experience, and create. We are here to be challenged by life and usually we find we are challenged at the most unexpected moments.

Stage 2: Call to Adventure

There comes a Call to Adventure. There might be a direct threat to the Hero’s safety, or their way of life is disturbed. It might be quite dramatic, like a natural disaster, loss of a loved one, loss of a job, home, or relationship. Or it might be more subtle like a phone call, a crucial conversation, a change in perspective, or simply a feeling that something needs to change. However it manifests, it ultimately disrupts the Hero’s ordinary world and presents them with a challenge or a quest of some sort that must be undertaken.

Some of the most difficult challenges you have faced in your life, have directed the course of your life. These events may have pulled you from your comfort zone and you may have resisted the force of it. However, one thing in life is inevitable, change. At some point, the call will come, and at some point, you will be required to take up the call if you are to continue your journey here on earth.

Stage 3: Refusal of the Call

Usually, our default response when life calls us to change, is to resist and to refuse the call. We might spend some time in denial and resistance, not wanting things to change. Since we are creatures of habit, we resist change, because it threatens our way of being in the world, and creates discomfort.

Sometimes the Hero might be eager to accept the quest, but they might have fears that are getting in the way. They might know that the change would be good for them in the long run, but they might be having second thoughts, or even deep personal doubts as to whether they really are up to the challenge.

When this happens, the Hero will Refuse the Call and as a result may suffer somehow. The problem they face may seem like too much to handle, and the comfort of their current situation might seem like a far more attractive option than the perilous road ahead. But their suffering will continue until they heed the call. You see, what we resist persists.

Stage 4: Meeting the Mentor

When things become unbearable, the Hero often needs guidance. And at this crucial turning point where the Hero desperately needs guidance, they meet a mentor figure who gives them something they need. They could receive an object of importance, or gain some new insights into the dilemma they are facing. They might learn to see things in a different way, or they might receive practical training that will support their transformation and improve their self-confidence. Whatever the mentor provides the Hero with it, serves to dispel their doubts and fears, and gives them the strength and courage to begin their quest.

Think about challenges you have faced in your own life and the people who have shown up to support you – sometimes in unexpected ways. If you are currently facing a challenge and resisting the call to change, pay close attention to the people in your life. Who is supporting you in becoming a better version of yourself? Who is encouraging you to stretch yourself? Who is perhaps putting obstacles in your way and not supporting your transformation?

Just like heroes, mentors often come in different shapes and sizes. A mentor is any person in your life who sees you as capable of far more than you are holding for yourself and who supports your growth and transformation. A mentor is someone who shares their own insights, or who listens to you, or supports you, or who provides you with the tools and resources you need to heed the call of transformation.

Stage 5: Crossing the Threshold

Finally, the Hero is ready to heed the call to adventure and tackle the challenge they are facing. This is when they truly begin their quest. The quest may be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or all these things rolled into one. They may go willingly, or they may be pushed, but either way, they finally cross the threshold between the world that is familiar to them and the unknown.

The quest may take different forms. It may be leaving home for the first time, or just doing something they’ve always been scared to do. Taking action signifies the Hero’s commitment to their journey and whatever it may have in store for them. It signifies a commitment to the discomfort of transformation and a confidence in their own ability to see it through.

This is often the hardest part. Getting started sometimes feels impossible and yet, it always starts with one small step in the direction you want to go. And taking action is what solidifies your commitment to transformation. It’s when you are willing to act on new insights and change old behaviour that no longer serve you. It’s when you start that diet, or exercise program, or you type those firsts words, or you submit that resignation letter, or end that toxic relationship, make that important phone call, or reach out and ask for help, etc. Any transformation starts with the first step, no matter how small. And then the next step. And then the next.

Stage 6: Tests, Allies, Enemies

No-one can become a hero without tests or challenges, allies, and enemies. Now finally out of their comfort zone, the Hero is confronted with an ever more difficult series of challenges that test them in a variety of ways. Obstacles are thrown across their path.

Obstacles can take different forms. They could be physical, mental, emotional, even relational with people getting in the way, or thwarting their progress towards the goal. The Hero must overcome each challenge on the journey towards their ultimate goal – which is transformation.

You see, it is through challenges and difficult situations that our character is tested, and we start leaning into our own inner strengths. It’s when we have to be with our difficult emotions and examine our thought patterns, and have those uncomfortable conversations, or do the things that don’t feel natural to us yet, but that we know will serve us in the long run, that we start building our character.

The Hero also needs to find out who can be trusted and who can’t. They might find support in allies. Or discover enemies, who each in their own way, prepare the Hero for greater ordeals to come. You see, enemies and obstacles are gifts on the path. They help strengthen the Hero and teach him/her valuable lessons that they will need to complete their journey. Every obstacle faced, leads to deeper insight into the Hero’s character and ultimately helps them become who they need to be. Every person on your path could be a mirror for the inner work required to grow and become your best self.

Stage 7: Approach to the Innermost Cave

No hero’s journey is complete without an ultimate battle or demon faced. This ultimate battle represents the Hero’s greatest fear and requires that they enter their innermost cave. The innermost cave may represent many things in the Hero’s story, such as an actual location in which lies a terrible danger, or an inner conflict which, up until now, the Hero has not had to face. As the Hero approaches the cave, they must make preparations before taking that final leap into the great unknown.

At the threshold to the innermost cave the Hero may once again face some of the doubts and fears that first surfaced upon the initial Call to Adventure. They may need some time to reflect upon their journey and the treacherous road ahead to find the courage to continue. By looking back on how far they have come, they gain a new perspective.

It’s through reflection and introspection that we discover the real work that needs to be done. Any transformation requires deep inner work for it to be sustainable. If you only do the outer work, you might get results, but they will be short-lived. You see, the deep inner work is necessary to help you see your life differently; to help you see yourself differently; to support you in showing up as the Hero in your own story.

It’s when we lean into our most uncomfortable thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, that the real transformation takes place and change that is sustainable becomes possible. It’s when we face our inner demons that we cultivate the strength to face our outer demons.

Stage 8: Ordeal

The final Ordeal may be a dangerous physical test or a deep inner crisis that the Hero must face to survive, or for the world in which the Hero lives, to continue to exist. Whether it be facing their greatest fear or most deadly foe, the Hero must draw upon all their skills and their experiences gathered upon the path to the innermost cave to overcome their most difficult challenge.

Those of us who have undergone our version of the hero’s journey know that real transformation requires time and commitment. It requires a willingness to keep doing the inner work, even when it becomes uncomfortable. It requires radical honesty and a deep commitment to the person we want to become.

Only through some form of “death” can the Hero be reborn, experiencing a metaphorical resurrection that somehow grants them greater power, or the insight necessary to fulfil their destiny or reach the end of the journey. This is the high point of the Hero’s story and where everything they hold dear is put on the line. If they fail, they will either die, or life as they know it will never be the same again.

In our own transformations, we all must let go of parts of ourselves that no longer serve us. We all must “die” to who we were to allow for our full transformation to the person we are becoming.

Stage 9: Reward (Seizing the Sword)

After defeating the enemy, surviving death, and finally overcoming their greatest personal challenge, the Hero is ultimately transformed into a new state of being. They emerge from battle as a stronger person and often with a reward or prize. This stronger person is your higher self or who you are when you show up as your best self.

The reward the Hero receives may come in many forms: an object of great importance or power, a secret, greater knowledge or insight, or even reconciliation with a loved one or ally. Whatever the treasure, the Hero must quickly put celebrations aside and prepare for the last leg of the journey; which is the Road Back.

No transformation is complete until it is shared with those in our lives. No transformation is complete until we get to show up differently in our lives, as evidence of the journey we have embarked on.

Stage 10: The Road Back

The Road Back is almost a reverse echo of the Call to Adventure where the Hero had to cross the first threshold. After completing their Ordeal and claiming the prize, the Hero now feels compelled to return home with their reward. This time however, the anticipation of danger is replaced with that of acclaim and perhaps vindication, absolution, or even exoneration. A changed person, the Hero embarks on the Road Back to tell the story of their journey; to share their wisdom/prize/reward; to reclaim their role in their community. Here is where your story becomes important and sharing your story might be the way that you inspire others to embark on their own hero’s journey.

Sometimes the Hero’s journey is not yet over. You may still need one final push back into the Ordinary World. The Hero is presented with one final choice, between their own personal objective or that of a Higher Cause.

Stage 11: Resurrection

The Resurrection is the climax of the story where the Hero faces their final and most dangerous encounter with death. The final battle usually represents something far greater than the Hero’s own simple existence with outcomes far outreaching that of the ordinary world and the lives of those left behind. In short, the Hero has chosen the Higher Cause.

If the Hero fails, others will suffer. So, the stakes are much higher this time. Having followed the Hero on their journey, the audience shares the Hero’s hopes, fears, and trepidations. Ultimately, if the Hero succeeds, they will emerge from battle victorious, cleansed, and reborn, and of course having served a cause much greater than their own self-interest.

Stage 12: Return with the Elixir

In the final stage of the Hero’s journey, they emerge from battle victorious and a changed person. They will have grown as a person, learned many things, unlearned other things, faced dangers and challenges – and sometimes even death – and now they look forward to the rest of their life, knowing they have faced their greatest fears, fought their biggest demons, and worked towards a cause much greater than themselves. The Hero’s return may bring fresh hope to those left behind, a direct solution to their problems, or perhaps a new perspective for everyone to consider.

The final reward the Hero obtains may be literal or metaphoric. It could be a cause for celebration, self-realization, or an end to strife, but whatever it is it represents three things: change, success, and proof of the journey. The return home also signals the need for resolution for the story’s other key players. The Hero’s doubters will be ostracized, their enemies punished, and their allies rewarded. Ultimately the Hero will return to where they started but things will clearly never be the same again.

This final stage of the Hero’s journey is most beautifully summarised by this quote by T. S. Elliot:

“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.”

So, dear reader, what is the call you’ve been ignoring or resisting? What change is inevitable that you’ve been resisting because of your own fears and personal doubts? And what is one small step you can take to consciously choose your Hero’s journey even in the face of fear?

What kind of support or guidance do you need? What “enemies” are emerging in your life that are here to teach you on your path? How are these people and obstacles a gift in your life? And what would happen if you were willing to do the inner work to unlearn old patterns of thinking and being? What would be possible if you were to take up your own Hero’s journey? What would you return to that would be transformed? Who would you be if you gave yourself permission to visit your innermost cave?

In my mind, Tony Robbins, most succinctly summarises what defines a true hero. Here is what he says about heroes:

“How do I define a hero?  A hero is a person who courageously contributes under even the most trying circumstances; a hero is an individual who acts unselfishly and who demands more from himself or herself than others would expect; a hero is a man or woman who defies adversity by doing what he or she believes is right in spite of fear.  A hero moves beyond the ‘common sense’ of the promoters of the status quo.  A hero is anyone who aims to contribute, anyone who is willing to set an example, anyone who lives by the truth of his or her convictions.  A hero develops strategies to assure his outcome, and persists until it becomes a reality, changing his approach as necessary and understanding the importance of small actions consistently taken.  A hero is not someone who is ‘perfect,’ because none of us are perfect.  We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t invalidate the contributions we make in the course of our lives.  Perfection is not heroism; humanity is.”

References:

1. Breytenbach, C. (2020). How to use your PAWs to overcome obstacles. Available online at: https://chantalbreytenbach.com/use_your_paws_to_overcome_obstacles/
2. Campbell, J. (2008). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato California: New World Library.
3. Finding Joe. (2020). Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8nFACrLxr0
4. Holiday, R. (2014). The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. New York: Penguin Group.
5. Robbins, T. (1992). Awaken the Giant Within: How to take immediate control of your mental, emotional, physical and financial destiny. New York: Simon & Schuster.