Intro: In the Hobbit – subtitled “An Unexpected Journey” one of the favorite lines is: “It’s a dangerous business walking out one’s front door.”
In the hero’s journey one must always leave the known, the comfortable, the normal – comfort zone be damned, this is where the possibility begins. This is where adventure and growth happen.
Stories are our lives in language. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. I’m Lori Lee, and I’m excited for our future together of telling stories, evaluating our own stories, and lifting ourselves and others to greater places because of our control over our stories. This podcast is about empowerment and giving you, the listener, ideas to work with in making your stories work for you. Power serves you best when you know how to use it.
As we discussed last week, the secret is that the same story has a hundred different ways it can be told. Perspective, lenses, motive, they all change up the tale. Do you decide to see the experience from a space of opportunity? From a space of blessing? Are you focused on what went wrong and who is to blame, or on the things you finally learned from having walked that path – willingly or not? Do you see it from a space of abundance, hope, and responsibility? You get to decide. Look at both. Tell both to yourself. Which one serves our highest self? Which one builds internal space and voices that buoy you and give you power? What story do you tell?
In the Hobbit, Gandalf has a conversation with Bilbo. It goes something like this:
Gandalf: I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone.
Bilbo: I should think so—in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them …
Gandalf: You’ll have a tale or two to tell when you come back
Bilbo: You can promise that I’ll come back?”
Gandalf: No. And if you do, you will not be the same
Does this exchange create any amount of excitement in you? It does in me. The ante has been upped. The danger is real. The choice is there to be made. This is where living big, or living small begins – in the choices.
When Bilbo makes the gigantic leap of faith and steps out, placing his foot on the dusty hobbit path that will lead him away from everything he knows, Gandalf says, “Home is now behind you, the world is ahead.”
Mythical stories always have a hero. This main character is on a journey. Joseph Campbell termed it the “hero’s journey” and it can be broken down into very specific parts. Within the story, there is a hero, a loss or obstacle that must be overcome – a journey that will test the hero. Along the route, there are often animals, magic, other people to help or give clues, but the hero has to conquer his challenge if he wishes to come out the other side of the story with the title of hero, where he then collects the kingdom and reward. While it’s true that the journey is fraught with danger, disappointment, often initial failure or setbacks, it is also true that the big picture is about the hero learning, growing and proving worthy of the challenge and the reward. Let’s bring this home and I’ll state the obvious: You are the hero of YOUR story.
This is a fun perspective. This is a perspective that can help you stand back up when you’ve been leveled. It’s a perspective that can remind you who you truly are no matter what dragon you’re facing. It’s a perspective that can help you create the story you want. So, the parts of the hero story that are so exciting in the movies, in the books, in the theater, are the parts that we hate most in real life. No one likes the loneliness of waiting for Prince Charming, or the depressing sleep brought on by a poison apple, or the blood loss when the unexpected...
