The Hero’s Journey: Your Roadmap to Achieving Anything
Need encouragement? Blow your story up to the size of the heroes that have come before you
“Don’t be satisfied with the stories that come before you; unfold your own myth.”
-Rumi“Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of bliss without such trials as those who came before you?”
-Quran
Everything we aim to achieve in life follows a hero’s journey pattern. We decide we want to do something, it takes us out of our comfort zone, we experience trials and tribulations, and we either emerge victorious or quit, not knowing what we could have achieved.
The hero’s journey is interwoven into the fabric of our lives because it’s a pattern buried in the collective unconscious of all humanity. It’s how we tell our stories.
Joseph Campbell didn’t invent it, he spotted commonalities across thousands of stories from vastly different corners of the world and wrote them down.
Awareness of this powerful pattern can be a tool in your journey through life. It’s a lot more fun and fulfilling to see yourself as a hero than it is to see yourself as just another human being sloshing through life.
This framework gave me the courage to move out of the country and learn to surf. It carried me through my learning journey as I fought the ocean to have fun. It has helped me countless times in my life.
The great thing about using the hero’s journey framework is that it front-loads the knowledge of the challenges that you’re going to go through.
When setting out to achieve something, front-loading with this process and mapping yourself through it, can help you achieve your goals in ways you never thought possible.
To do this right, you will need a journal or a way to record progress. Data that isn’t measured can’t be used.
Step 1: The Call to Adventure
Every journey begins with a call to adventure when the hero is called to leave their ordinary world behind and go out on a quest.
We’ve all felt it. This is when you feel itch to do something out of the ordinary because your personal world has gotten a little too cozy, and hedonic adaptation is rearing its ugly head.
It could be a career change, a relationship, or a desire to learn something new.
In my own life, I felt this call before I left on my movement journey two years ago. My world had gone wrong. I was spinning my wheels, had just left a bad relationship, COVID raged on, and I was miserable. So, I left the country and threw myself into learning to surf. I reconnected with my body.
Currently, I’m feeling the hero’s call to bowhunting. I’m plotting my hero’s path toward hunting in my beloved Colorado mountains next September. This feeling never stops haunting us, we only become better at recognizing it.
Your own call to adventure could be a need for a career change, pursuing a creative passion, or achieving something difficult. The moment you acknowledge that something significant awaits you beyond your comfort zone, your journey has begun. Follow that feeling!
Action Tip
Buy a journal while you’re in this precious early stage. Write down why you want to chase this thing that won’t leave your head. Acknowledge that you’re feeling called to it, without judgment.
You don’t have to upend your life yet, you just need to understand that you’re feeling a call and sit with that feeling. We are called for a reason, but the reason isn't always clear at the beginning of the journey.
Step 2: Refusal of the Call
In this step, the hero hesitates and refuses the call to adventure due to fear or self-doubt.
This inner resistance is a common obstacle in our lives. You might feel overwhelmed, question your abilities, or be afraid of change. These feelings are a natural part of any hero’s journey.
I spent months before I left on my movement adventure thinking that I needed to be ordinary. Thinking that I needed to stay home, building and achieving, instead of wandering and fighting my own demons.
Ultimately, I got out and traveled the world, and it was the right choice. I created two years of experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Action Tip
To overcome the refusal, go back to your journal. Acknowledge your fears and doubts, but also remind yourself of the potential rewards of answering the call. This is the time for a good ol’ fashioned pros and cons list.
Seek support from the people who know you well during this stage. Talk over your pros and cons. Tell them that you want to try something new, that you want to shake yourself out of your comfort zone. Look for testimonials of people who have done what you want to do.
Step 3: Supernatural Aid
Heroes in many myths and stories receive supernatural aid, often in the form of mentors, magical objects, or knowledge that assists them on their journey. They might find a magic sword that talks to them, or raid a tomb to find that an amulet that allows them to see through walls has chosen them.
In real life, this aid will often manifest as education, guidance, or resources that enable you to tackle the challenges.
You might meet an old man in a coffee shop near your house who tells you that surfing in Costa Rica was his favorite, seemingly apropos of nothing, as I did. Or you might find the perfect guide for the skill you want to learn wedged in the wall of your Grandma’s house.
Some people call these things coincidence, but I think we can all agree that “supernatural aid” is a lot more fun, isn’t it? The idea that the universe is conspiring in your favor to make sure you’re the hero of this story is much more powerful.
Action Tip
Using your journal, imagine what your life would look like if you were doing the thing that you want to do. Feel it. Taste the air around you. Does it taste sweeter? Would it feel amazing to stand on that mountaintop?
If you’re still not sure if you can strike out on your Hero’s Journey, seek “supernatural aid.” Find mentors, books, courses, or tools to empower you to move forward. We live in an amazing time, social media has given us more access to the people doing the things we want to do at a world-class level than ever before.
Step 4: Crossing the Threshold
Uh oh, there’s no going back now! We’re in the rapids, there’s no turning around until we’re back in the flat water. We’ve taken that first step.
This marks the hero’s transition from the ordinary world (I like to say the “world gone wrong”) into the special world of adventure. I still remember the “what the hell am I doing” feeling that I had as I stood in the airport, waiting for my flight that would take me to Costa Rica, and my first surfing experience.
In your own quest, crossing the threshold means taking the first steps toward your goal, leaving behind the familiar, and venturing into uncharted territory. It’s scary, but it’s the only way growth happens and stagnation dies.
Action Tip
Using the journal, create a detailed plan for your journey and take that initial step. It doesn’t matter if the plan falls apart (it will). Whether it’s enrolling in a new program, starting a project, or making a career move, this is the moment when you actively commit to your goal.
Maybe it leads to nothing. Maybe it leads you somewhere you completely did not see coming.
Step 5: Belly of the Whale
The hero, after they enter the special world, often faces a severe crisis or challenge. At the end of the first week that I started surfing, I felt terrible. I was far from home, sad, and frustrated. The vision of surfing I had in my head was nothing like what was happening. I was flailing in the water, unable to stand up on the board even if I caught a wave, which was seldom.
This symbolic “belly of the whale” represents the trials and tribulations you’ll encounter on your path to success. It’s the “omg, what am I doing? I just spent all this money on a BMX bike, and I can barely pedal” feeling. This is the part that we must fight through because all kinds of glory wait on the other side.
Action Tip
To navigate this phase, crack open that journal. Write down all your frustrations. Write down why this sucks. Setbacks and challenges are part of the journey, and damn, do they hurt. Resilience is key, but don’t try to be bulletproof. Call a friend who’s supportive of your journey. Sit with the feelings. This is where the good stuff is.
Step 6: The Road of Trials
Now we’re cooking. The road of trials is when things get even harder. The good news is, it’s also when you realize that those challenges are surmountable. This is when you start to see incremental progress. I still remember the first time I stood up on a surfboard and didn’t fall over. Oh, sweet victory!
However, guess what? That initial victory fades fast. Standing up on a long surfboard in whitewater doesn’t mean anything. You don’t want to just move straight ahead! That would be boring as hell!
In your pursuit of your goals, you’ll encounter your own road of trials, filled with setbacks, failures, and obstacles. People are going to say that you don’t have the right experience. That you’re not what they’re looking for. That you aren’t strong enough.
You have to persist, clawing victories out of the dirt and holding each small one close to you, knowing they will get bigger and bigger.
Action Tip
Embrace the road of trials. When you have a victory, please write it down! You’ll have to hold those close to your heart in the cold times ahead. Measuring those small victories can make the road of trials seem a little bit easier.
Step 7: Meeting with the Goddess
In mythology, the hero often encounters a divine feminine figure who offers wisdom and guidance. For me, this meeting came when I met a real nomad named Sofia, who lived in a tent at the Panamanian surf hostel where I briefly lived.
She reminded me that I didn’t need to follow the established path and that it was okay to be out seeking adventure.
In life, we need mentors and guides to get to where we want to go. These people often come in the form of people who validate your choices, right when things seem most challenging.
Action Tip
When you’re low, in the middle of your journey, look for someone doing what you want to be doing at a high level. Ask them how they do it. Chances are, they’ll gush to you about their favorite methods. Write down everything you learn so you can return to it later.
Step 8: Atonement with the Father
At the same hostel in Panama where I met Sofia, I went out surfing during a thunderstorm. This was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Should I have done it? No. Did it lead to a transformative breakthrough? Hell yes.
While flailing around getting water up my nose, I was hit with one of the most important realizations of my life.
I had been telling my story as if I was a victim of my religious upbringing, and that if I wanted to live the kind of life that I said I did, I needed to forgive my parents.
That’s the kind of wisdom you receive on the hero’s journey. I don’t know if I would have received an insight that powerful at home, stuck in my old routine.
In your journey, this step symbolizes the need to address and make peace with any external or internal conflicts holding you back. Finding closure or forgiveness can be a powerful catalyst for personal transformation.
Action Tip
In your journal, reflect on your unresolved conflicts. Are they with people you love? Are they with you? Notice them, without judgment, and sit with them.
Step 9: Apotheosis
Through their trials and challenges, the hero achieves a higher understanding of themselves and their purpose.
In my own journey, this moment came when I realized that I wasn’t a surfer. I’ll elaborate more in the next section, but suffice it to say that I didn’t want to chase waves and live on a crazy schedule. Surfing was a vessel for transformation.
This moment comes when you’ve finally made progress with your journey. When you feel competent with what you’ve learned, and you know that if you continue on, mastery will not be far away.
Action Tip
In your journal, take time to reflect on your journey, your accomplishments, and your personal growth. Embrace the wisdom gained from your trials and tribulations.
Step 10: The Ultimate Boon
In the hero’s journey, the ultimate boon is the ultimate achievement or the fulfillment of the quest.
For me, this came when I was with an Argentinian friend on the south coast of Ecuador. We’d taken a trip to this beautiful surfing spot that he knew about, which was almost empty of people (I later found out that this was because it was deep in cartel country).
We found six world-class right-hand point breaks and rode them all day. An hour from sunset, I caught the best wave of my life. I rode it for an hour, enjoying the culmination of everything I’d worked for for nine months. It felt awesome!
As soon as the wave petered out, I had this overwhelming feeling of “well, that’s probably about as good as that’s going to get.”
I’d reached my mountaintop. I knew I didn’t want to be a surf bum, living for the chase in beach towns worldwide. I wanted to return home and seek community. But did I? No! Not for a while longer.
In life, this moment is high and low at the same time. We’ve reached our goal, but reaching the goal comes with the “what’s next?” feeling. It’s the fun and challenging part of being a human being. We must reinvent ourselves, or we stagnate.
It’s the journey, the struggle, that makes life worth living.
Action Tip
Open your journal and write down everything you feel you’ve achieved in pursuit of your goal. Don’t focus on what’s next. Let the feelings swirl inside you, and sit with what you’ve accomplished.
Step 11: Refusal of the Return
After conquering the ultimate boon, the hero may be reluctant to return to their ordinary world. I certainly was. I spent another year wandering after knowing I wanted to return home. I don’t regret any of it, but it could have ended sooner and been just as impactful.
This step signifies the fear of settling back into old routines and losing the momentum you’ve built. Maybe you’ve run a marathon, or maybe you’ve left the country and learned to be a yoga teacher.
The world is full of people who don’t feel ready to return to normal life. This is okay, but you must understand that to truly complete the journey, you must bring back what you’ve learned to your ordinary world.
Action Tip
In your journal, write down all your fears related to returning to your old routine or your old self. Rank them from most to least likely. Read them aloud. How realistic are they? What version of you do they represent?
Step 12: The Master of Two Worlds
The hero becomes a master of the special world, then they must journey home and master the real world.
To be honest, I’m learning how to do this as we speak. Coming home isn’t easy when you’ve gone far beyond your comfort zone, because everything seems the same.
How could you have changed so much, yet all your friends and family seem not to have changed?
I don’t have a concrete action step yet because I’m learning on the fly. What I do know is that for any hero, there’s always another journey waiting to be undertaken.
Enjoy surfing your own waves of life!
Being okay not being on a journey is one of the great journeys I've taken this year. Thanks for writing this, Aaron. It arrived at the perfect time.