Among the best-known quotes about risk is this observation by author, Anais Nin: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more powerful than the risk it took to blossom.”

We humans have spent so much time protecting our assumptions of safety that we have often lost sight of the possibility of phenomenal fulfillment if we take the risks of going for our personal and professional dreams.

Nin is saying that there is often a greater harm in seeking safety than in taking the risk to experience life fully.

What is your history in adventuring in the human condition? What kinds of risk have you avoided? What are the costs of your avoidance? How have you seen risk avoidance behavior in your life and the lives of those around you?

One of the many intriguing aspects of The Hero’s Journey is its reflection in fiction. Famous examples of films containing elements of the Hero’s Journey are the various iterations of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. As you consider the plot lines, consider the ways in which your life has modeled the seven steps.

Both LOTR and SW began with a Call to Adventure and ended with the victorious return home after encountering many difficulties. Books like Huckleberry Finn have elements of this mythic structure as the hero leaves the known and journeys out into the world.

What adventure is calling you? Can you recognize any of the stages of the Hero’s Journey in the specifics of your own life? Are you just setting out on a Call to Adventure or are you almost home after a harrowing journey? Are you fighting dragons? Is the prize within your grasp?

Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s Journey the “monomyth,” a powerful pattern that describes all myths, and, in the process, describes how we humans often navigate our way through life.

From Wikipedia:

“In laying out the monomyth, Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. The hero starts in the ordinary world and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events (a call to adventure). If the hero accepts this call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials (a road of trials), and may have to face these trials alone – or may have assistance.”

“At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with the help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift (the goal or ‘boon’) which often results in important self-knowledge.”

“The hero must then decide whether to return with his boon (the return to the ordinary world), often facing challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world (the application of the boon).”

A hero’s journey can include processes like going off to college, starting a new business, getting married, having a child and other major life journeys. What are some of the events of your life that you can see within the context of the Hero’s Journey?

(Pursuant to the GNU Free Documentation License):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

The Hero’s Journey is an archetypal way of understanding the quests of our lives. Joseph Campbell wrote about the hero’s journey as a way to conceptualize how and why we take on the challenges we choose. Very simplistically, think knight in the castle who learns that there is a damsel in distress. He sets out to slay the dragon and return home victorious with the rescued damsel by his side.

There are seven major steps to any hero’s journey – with many sub-steps. Today, we’ll start just by naming them:

The Call to Adventure

Refusal of the Call

Supernatural Aid

The Crossing of the First Threshold

Belly of The Whale

Initiation

The Road of Trials

Return

Think of any challenge or opportunity which confronts you. At the very least, you’ve heard the Call to Adventure based on your awareness of the challenge.

Just knowing what you know now about the Hero’s Journey, can you think of an example, past or present, where your life’s journey might be able to be understood through the steps of the Hero’s Journey?