The basis of many literary works and movies is a main character – a masculine hero or a feminine heroine – who combats adversity and faces up to danger of one kind or another with ingenuity, bravery or strength.  Sometimes they sacrifice their own personal concerns for a greater good and emerge changed, transformed in some way.

“Hero” is now considered a gender-neutral word so let’s run with that, and the concept of the “Hero’s Journey”, popularised by mythologist Joseph Campbell.  We may not see ourselves as heroes so how can we see start to see ourselves in a different light.

For starters, nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be. How much less exciting is it if you know the outcome of a soccer or tennis game before you watch it?

Joseph Campbell said “There is no security in following the call to adventure”.  That really speaks to me.  When I set off from the UK on a 3 month overland trip that ended in Sydney, there was no Google and I had no idea what Sydney was like and even less idea about Afghanistan.  Nor that I would arrive in Sydney and stay here, becoming an Australian citizen!

Instead of wanting to know outcomes, how about embracing the unknown and celebrating the excitement it generates?

Another useful instruction is to follow your bliss. Are you doing that?  Or following someone else’s idea of bliss? Or what you think should be your bliss, or what you think will impress or appease the important people in your life? Time to take stock perhaps. What do you really love to do, create, experience?

If you enter a forest and there is a path, and you follow that path, that is a path that someone else has made, and you are not following your own path. As well as not being satisfying it will likely prevent you from realising your potential.  Society doesn’t encourage us to do that and it’s challenging – but also inspiring and life affirming.

Letting go of your old identity, shedding the old skin is also challenging, but essential to allow the new come in. Letting go enables us to step – or even jump – into the life that is waiting for us.

I loved the moment in the movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” when he goes to leap across an impossible chasm and stepping stones appear out of nowhere to provide safe passage. Sometimes we just need to have enough trust to do what we fear.

In improvisational theatre, where what is performed is unplanned and unscripted, created by the performers in the moment, you are taught to always say ‘Yes’ to whatever another performer offers you – otherwise things grind to a halt.  I found it terrifying, but lived to tell the tale!  As in performance, as in life, we need to always be saying “Yes”  to what life brings – its ups, its downs, its opportunities and its joys.

Or you may like to take up the stance that Wayne Dyer offered: “In my world nothing goes wrong”.

And to finish with Joseph Campbell: “Follow your bliss. The hero’s life is living the individual adventure”.

Engage in your hero’s journey. Tread your own path.