The hJ is the monomyth - the common template that all stories share throughout the history of mankind. Every story is essentially about a hero, a call to adventure, and ultimately a transformation.
These are the 12 steps…in Emoji’s
This week is Step 2... The Call
My underwear drawer at home consists mostly of blues and grays, I'm sure you can relate. But there is one red pair, which gets me really excited. I mostly get dressed in the dark these days (I know, big surprise, you say), but on days I reach in and pull out the reds, I know we're in for something special.
In Star Wars R2-D2 appears with a message from Princess Leia, in Spaceballs the king calls Lonestar to rescue the princess.
The call to adventure is the thing that disrupts the status quo and forces us into a quest. Take the blue pill or the red.
In stories, The Call has to happen early on, its the whole reason the thing we're consuming is considered a story - it sets the quest in motion. A story with no call to adventure is pretty much a slideshow of vacation photos.
In our own lives, the call to adventure can come in the form of fear. What opportunity are we afraid to try next? I actually think any negative visceral reaction is useful and telling.
Think about if someone were to come up to you and tell you you're not smart because you think the sky was polka dotted...You wouldn't get very upset because you'd know they were insane. It's not true. You'd probably think the person was a lunatic.
But I know that if someone came up to me and said, 'you're lazy because you haven't released a new episode of the Finance Guys in Tech Podcast in several months' I would snap back at them and defend myself and curse at them for making such a remark.
Because I know it's true.
We are perfectly calm and collected in response to things that we know are nonsense. And we have a negative visceral reaction to things that are true.
So if you think about a new opportunity, such as if you should fly into outer space, it doesn't really evoke much of a fear response because it's not really in the cards as something you should be doing, but are avoiding, (to our astronauts on the newsletter, please disregard). But, for example when I think about emailing the VP of Amazon Studios to be interviewed on the Finance Guys podcast I have a fear response, because I should be doing it, but I'm not. It's a Call to Adventure.
Fear is a pretty good indicator that we're on the right path. The question is how do you respond to fear, and that response is what is known as Step 3 in the Hero's Journey - 'The Refusal of The Call'. Our topic for next week.
What's calls to adventure are you sitting around ignoring?
Have a good HJ my peeps, see you next week.
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For more HJ background check out Joseph Campbell’s Wikipedia entry
Gallery preview of all 12:
(from charleskunken.com/blog/the-heros-journey-emoji-style)
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The HJ Series:
My underwear drawer consists mostly of blues and grays but on days I pull out the reds, I know we're in for something special.