MM#125--A Hero's Journey, part 1

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. Way back in Mojo minute 116. We talked about the hero's story. Let's unpack that a little more today. Let's put some, as they say meat on the bone. And I apologize for all you vegans out there for that reference. But let's put some more meat on the bone. So where does this notion of have a hero's story or a hero's journey come from? Well, the main dude that kicked off this hero's journey stuff is a guy named Joseph Campbell, he wrote a book titled The Hero with 1000 faces, it was written back in 1940, not 1949, excuse me. And it was a unique look at the human experience around the world. The main thesis of the book was there was this, quote, mono myth that shows up across all cultures, along with one universal hero. However, that hero has 1000 faces corresponding to the various cultures and subcultures around the world. And ultimately, for every great story or myth, in those various cultures, the hero goes on a journey as a rite of passage. And he faces obstacles and then ultimately succeeds returning from the journey to triumph and praise. And the real lesson of the myth or the story is the hero has been changed, or transfigured from within to become a better person. And it's pretty fascinating. Campbell did incredible original work. 

And I would encourage you to check out Campbell's as website out there, you can read the book, The Hero with 1000 faces. I read it back in college. Now Campbell was an American author and teacher he was best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. And so today's Mojo minute is not to talk about comparative mythology though. Today's Mojo min is to reflect and ask ourselves what happens when we put ourselves into the hero's mission in real time. So for example, when we start to ask ourselves tough questions, as if we are on our own hero's journey. You know, those are eternal questions, who am I? Who do I want to become? I think this could be a game changer. When we shift the paradigm to ask ourselves the questions we may meet, we maybe only asked ourselves when we were kids. When we were growing up, we perhaps thought about if we want to be a fireman or a police officer, or the president united states, or a basketball star, or the head of the symphony, sitting first chair in violin, we ask those questions of ourselves. What are we to become? And usually it's a job. It's a vocation. But as adults, a funny thing gets in the way while we're going along, and that funny thing is called life. That dang thing life. It's always jumping in our road distracting us from the important stuff. Now if we do ask ourselves as an adult, who am I and who do I want to become? First? That certainly takes some courage. Because as adults with experience in life, we know there will be hard work in front of us. We know we would have to change and the real answers to those tough questions will require us to change. Sometimes we get too comfortable. 

Remember the Campbell Monomyth the hero always comes back transfigured. I think somewhere in Campbell's book, he says if the hero does not come back transfigured, it was never a hero's journey in the first place. So we have to understand, we're gonna have to do the hard work and overcoming obstacles, and ultimately changing from without, and most, especially from within.

But we always featured a book, a mojo book of the day, and these Mojo minutes. And so I wanted to bring on our feature book, I just came across, and I found it fascinating. And it's going to inspire our next mode to Mojo minutes, this one and the next one. And the title of the book is a field guide for the hero's journey by Jeff Sandefur and Reverend Robert Sirico. And the full title is feel good for the hero's journey, inspirational classics, and practical advice from a serial entrepreneur, and an entrepreneurial priest. It's written back in 2012. And this short little book offers some great practical advice for us if we choose to embark on this hero's journey. Just as a little side note, Reverend Reverend Sir Robert Sirico is head or I think he might have just retired of the Acton Institute up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, great little outfit, it really studies the intersection of religion, politics, and capitalism, and how those integrate how those can integrate very, very well to produce. They really help to combat poverty around the world with fresh new insights. 

So check out the Acton Institute, Reverend Robert Sirico, has been an inspiration to many up there. And this book is in line with his with his good, good thinking. So let's go to the book for our first poll quote. The first is that some advisors and mentors do not understand and other people's burning desire to have the great dreams of meaning and significance in their lives may not match up with their ability to formulate their questions. Very often people ask profound questions under the guise of confusion and imprecision. And, in my case, precociousness. This is Reverend Robert Sirico writing. And a second thing I've come to understand is that it is very rare that one single answer provides the whole key to the puzzle we're looking to solve. And finally, there may well be the case, it may very well be the case that advice we were given that is intended to dismiss us or that fails to appreciate a striving for a heroic ID ideal may yet contain some valuable gem, unquote. So let me highlight two of the nuggets of wisdom for us today. First, that we may be asking ourselves profound questions. But these questions may be under the guise of confusion or imprecision. That's something good to meditate on, reflect on. Take to prayer with and second, and very often and usually the answer we immediately receive is not is not underlying, the single answer that provides the whole key to the puzzle that we're looking to resolve. 

Now that's some great wisdom indeed. Think about when you put together a picture puzzle. Do you ever grab one puzzle piece and hold it up in the light and say, Ah, here it is. The one puzzle piece? No. You are often grappling and finding 56789 pieces to begin to try and figure out what you are looking at, and what is the picture you're solving for. So in today's Mojo minute if we take our hero's journey if we ask ourselves those profound questions, let us not lose heart at the first question of the first couple answers. Let us not lose heart at the first answer. Let us not lose heart at the first answer, or in fact, the first couple of answers that come back to us. Often it takes courage to stay on the path to embrace the grind of asking those questions every day. Slowly, so the puzzle pieces will come, as they say, in baseball singles here and there is always a good offense.
Meaning babysits for all you non sports people out there. So take courage today. If you are willing to take the hero's journey, and you're willing to ask the tough questions. This heroic quest will reward you deeply and satisfyingly. So much so that you will look back on it and say I have lived a flourishing life in mind, body and soul. Because of these questions, and a little PS here, be sure to come back next time we're going to explore a story where the hero's journey takes an unexpected turn. It's fascinating, and I know you won't want to miss it.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on