subject: Succeeding, Perseverance – The Hero's Journey to Finding Fulfillment and Making Dreams Come True [print this page] Succeeding, Perseverance The Hero's Journey to Finding Fulfillment and Making Dreams Come True
In the 1940's Joseph Campbell wrote a book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In it he examined what is common in all myths and traditional stories. At the center is the hero, who has a major character flaw they do not want to acknowledge. The beginning of the story shows them in their everyday life, in blissful denial that their security is unhealthy and precarious.
Then some kind of crisis happens that turns their life upside down and creates challenges they have to overcome. At first they may be reluctant and may try to continue living life the way they did before. They do not realize what is at stake, that they have actually reached a point of no return in their life. But that only leads them into more trouble, until eventually they have no option, they have to change and take on the challenges.
The rest of the story will be about the obstacles that get in their way. They reach a point where everything seems hopeless, where they believe they have failed and that life is completely against them.
But there's something about that low point, where denial is completely over and they face the truth of how fallible they are. It lights up their inner power, and they are able to overcome; finding fulfillment. Einstein understood this; he said it's only when you face the reality of your limitations that you can go beyond them.
Campbell's book is a lot more detailed, but that structure underlies most good stories and films. Sometimes it's done very obviously as in big epic dramas like The Gladiator, and sometimes it's much more subtle. We find it appealing because it's the truth of our lives. We like stories because we want to see our journeys reflected, and that it is possible to succeed even when the odds are massively stacked against us. It's inherent in our makeup to seek resolution, to let go of denial, face our truth, and overcome challenges to find fulfillment.
We are all heroes, we all have to take this journey to some degree, in big and small things. The times we think we have failed, we just have not finished the journey, that is all. Essentially the journey is about stepping out of history. Doing what we have to do so we can move forward. Making dreams come true, living our lives differently to the way we did before.
