The Hero’s Journey is an ancient, embedded story pattern that appears in myths, folk tales and stories all over the world. It is as present and resonant today as it was thousands of years ago. In its simplest form this story archetype describes the passage from the known to the unknown, just as Orpheus journeyed to the Underworld to reclaim his lost wife, Eurydice, or Jack climbed the beanstalk into the land of giants or Luke Skywalker chose to leave his familiar desert planet for a galactic adventure.

At heart the Hero’s Journey is a model for human life itself and applies equally to men and women. For life itself is a Hero’s Journey, from the secure environment of our mother’s womb propelled into a world of challenge and uncertainty and finally to our passage through the death process.

Within our own individual lives we may go on many journeys into the unknown. Starting a new business, falling in love, climbing a mountain, moving to a new country and giving birth – all of these and many others can be seen as Hero’s Journeys.

The Hero’s Journey story pattern has a series of identifiable stages, one leading to the next, with key events and turning points and archetypal characters who will appear in various guises on the way. Although it manifests itself in fictional films, stories and myths, this template can also be used by us as individuals to map out where we are in our life and to guide us when we set off on a new adventure.

The Hero’s Journey is a metaphorical model for effective, fulfilling living but to see how it translates and applies to you and your life you must first be sufficiently awake.

So, where are you right now? How wake are you?

Here are a few thoughts to help you.

Your Journey

Whether you realise it or not, you are already on a journey, a journey through time and space.

Imagine yourself as a point on a map moving along a path. This path is your journey and no one else’s. No one else can walk your path nor you anyone else’s. That’s just not possible.

You and only you are the protagonist of your own journey.

When you awaken to the realisation that you are already on a journey, your journey, then certain questions arise:

• Where am I going?
• What is my goal, my true purpose in life?
• How can I reach my goal?
• Where can I get help?

Now you begin to see your life as unique to you. It is a gift, an opportunity. You begin to see it as a journey or even as an adventure, and even more than an adventure – a quest.

Now instead of being a passive citizen of life, pulled along but the currents of daily life, an intentionality stirs within you. This is your life and you feel you have to do something with it other than just work and pay the bills. You seek to become active, to share and mould your life to your desire, to discover something, something meaningful, to find out who you really are, to discover what your true bliss is.

If this is where you are right now, then you are ready to go on a Hero’s Journey, to shift into a higher gear and move from being a passive to an active protagonist in the story of your own life.

And then something unexpected happens…

The Call to Adventure

Nothing remains the same. As we grow we transform. What seemed important when we were in our twenties changes as we reach middle age. Our values and goals shift. When we look back we may see that our life has been marked by a series of stages. As we approach the end of one cycle, the seed of a new one takes root.

What are the signs that you are approaching your next adventure, a change in direction and lifestyle? You may begin to realise that your old way of life no longer satisfies you and things that once brought you pleasure now seem hollow and empty. Discontentment or even depression may set in, leading to a deep, driving sense of unfulfilment, a sense that some vital ingredient is missing from your life.

You may languish in this transitional stage for a brief or long while. But this stage has an important function: it is preparing you for what is to come.

Slowly or dramatically your old world begins to break down and then, often out of the blue, you will receive an invitation to change, a Call to Adventure.

A HERALD appears bearing a message. This Herald may be a real person, a friend or acquaintance or a complete stranger, someone who brings the possibility of change, of new experiences, a revitalisation of your life. “Hey, why don’t you give up your dead end nine to five and come to South America with me?” Or: “I really like you, why don’t you move in with me?” Or you win a prestigious scholarship which means moving faraway from home and community.

The Call to Adventure can be heralded in a multitude of unexpected ways: a remark in a conversation, a telephone sales call, an advert on a billboard, a dream.

The Call to Adventure is a pivotal moment. How will you respond? Will you say yes to the adventure? Will you grant yourself permission to change and grow and live life more passionately or will you stubbornly stay put in your old, familiar world? It’s safe and comfortable there. An adventure involves risk, danger possibly, the unknown certainly.

Will you accept or refuse your  Call to Adventure?