It's Your Story. Be the Hero.

Or- Set a course for adventure.

Think.

You know the story.

A boy/girl/man/woman wakes in the morning wishing that their life was more adventurous than it is.

Then something happens, ‘The Call’ that offers the promise of adventure, but they balk at taking the risk.

Next something tragic/devastating/wildly unexpected occurs and they are forced to leave their ordinary lives and cross the threshold into the extra-ordinary world.

There they find a friend/mentor/coach/ group of like-minded adventurers.

Then they run into monsters/enemies/evil.

Magic can’t live in the ordinary world, but it is right at home in the extra-ordinary.

Our hero/heroine faces a series of challenges that cause them to learn/grow/lose their bad attitude.

They’ll win some and lose some and eventually face their biggest challenge. The stakes are high, and the cards are stacked against them.

At this point, there will likely be a training montage with motivational music and an inspirational message.

The friend/mentor/coach/group of like-minded adventurers can’t help them as they enter the cave/building/darkness to face their deepest fear/monsters/enemy/ evil.

When the dust settles our hero/heroine emerges victorious with some wisdom/weapon/gift that they can return to the ordinary world with.  

With some minor variations, this is the story of Hercules/Frodo/Luke Skywalker/Harry Potter/Mulan/Simba/John McClane/Neo/ etc.

It’s the same story we have been telling since our ancestors first began gathering around fires.

Professor Joseph Cambell is credited with identifying the structure that appears in the myths and tales of nearly every culture since stories have been recorded. He called it the Monomyth (a name he borrowed from James Joyce). It’s more commonly referred to as the Hero’s Journey.

We never tire of hearing this story because it’s our story, or at least it can be if we answer the call to adventure.

That adventure may not always be fighting monsters, or saving the world, but it can be fighting our demons and making our world better.

Adventure is calling. Answer.

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Read. Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life

Donald J. Robertson

I’ve been following this substack by Donald J. Robertson for a while. This post gives an excerpt from his new graphic novel which looks super cool, and as the fates would have it, the excerpt deals with young Hercules. If you like it, please follow using the second link below.

Read our Graphic Novel: Verissimus

Write.

In my forthcoming memoir, Tough Rugged Bastards, I talk about going through Marine Corps boot camp as a hero’s journey. In fact, our lives are a series of Hero’s Journeys as long as we answer the call to adventure.

Think back to a time when you answered the call and stepped into the extra-ordinary world. It was hard, maybe it sucked, but you came out of it wiser, stronger, and better.

Now journal about a time when you refused the call, and stayed safe at home. What do you think you missed? What could you have learned?

Repeat.

It’s time to depart on the long, hard road to find our Higher Selves. It’s time to separate ourselves from the ordinary world that has ensnared us with its trivial concerns and easy, disposable pleasures that reach their sell-by date almost as soon as they are touched. It’s time to cross the threshold that separates the world of Common Day from the extraordinary world. The hero’s path is right there in front of us, all marked out for us, yet it’s a path that few will be taking. You want an extraordinary life? Then what are you going to do that is extraordinary? You want to be a hero? Then do something heroic. Take that first step into the Unknown Country and begin the process of transforming yourself from base metal into gold. The hero monomyth is the supreme act of alchemy that takes the prima materia (the primary material) – ourselves – and purifies and perfects it until it shines, glints, and gleams like the gold of God.

Michael Faust, How to Become a Hero

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