Anyone can embark on a hero’s journey

There’s a reason why so many myths and fairytales, across all cultures and throughout history, have featured a hero’s journey. This universal story speaks to us on a primal level, and its meaning is rooted deep in our collective unconscious. Many of the biggest box-office films of the past 40 years have been based on the hero’s journey, from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings and, more recently, Harry Potter.

We love these movies – there’s a reason why they stir our soul, but not many of us would imagine we were on a hero’s journey of our own.

You can find many different versions of the hero’s journey with many different steps and stages, but the basic template is consistent.

The simplest form of the hero’s journey that I could find is represented in the illustration above. We start out in our ordinary world, with no hint of the journey we are about to undertake. Then we are called to adventure – often reluctantly. We leave home and cross a threshold into a different world. We soon meet people who help us navigate the first part of the journey – whether they’re actual people or inner resources.

We then undergo a set of trials, obstacles and temptations, meeting allies and enemies along the way – often failing, but eventually succeeding. But our grand trial awaits, and it is then that we reach the point of revelation and an old self is discarded.

When we accept our destiny we find ourselves transformed and start the journey home. The way back may be just as challenging, and there may be a final demon or dragon to conquer before returning to normal life. Which you then discover can never be the same again.

I have told the story of my life using the template of the hero’s journey and it’s amazing what a different perspective it gave me. All the triumphs and adversities, joys and sorrows seemed to fall into a pattern and make sense.

Try it out for yourself. You don’t have to go back over your whole life in this way – it works just as well for defining events or particular times in your story. It may give you a deeper sense of meaning, a bigger theme to your life.

I rather like what best-selling author Brad Meltzer has to say about heroes:

We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day.

Watch this brilliant short animation, What Makes a Hero?, from Ted-Ed for more inspiration.