#95. The Creative Hero's Journey: How To Begin Discovering The Creative Hero Inside You! Part. 1

What is the heroes journey?

The hero’s journey is a story formula that was written by the author Joseph Campbell and first founded in his book “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”.

In which Campbell compared all of the mythological stories of heroes that he could think of and find, from all kinds of historical stories of great daring and courageous heroes.

In doing so he discovered the paradigm the hero’s journey.

He made this correlation when he realised that all the tales of old had a great storytelling formula to them.

He discovered that all heroes would go down an almost pre specific path.

He discovered that they would often come from an ordinary world.

There would be a call to action of some form.

The hero would then refuse the call to action.

They would meet with a mentor often old and wizard-like.

They’d cross the threshold into the new world.

Be tested by new allies and enemies.

They would approach their innermost cave, in which they would fight their demons and discover their inner strength.

There would be an ordeal of large proportions.

The death of the old self and often the mentor or an Allie.

A rebirth followed by a permanent transformation from the past self.

Then the road back to their home.

Starting to sound a little like some of your favourite stories?

This is why I wanted to share this formula with you because within the heroes journey I discovered that there is a truly creative journey here.

There are stages to the creative journey and although I am not close to the end of my journey, I want to translate this for my audience here at Making Lemonade, to help you discover where you are on your own personal creative journey and to also discover where I need to go next so I know I am on the right path and so that you will too.

The creative hero’s journey should not be misconstrued as grandiose or some sort of grab at calling yourself a hero. 

No, it is quite simply a fact.

If you want to be the hero in your story you need to act like one.

If you think of your life as a movie and where you are going as the plotline, or as a great tale of old.

What have you achieved so far? 

What act are you in?

What story are you telling so far that can be shared with the masses?

Are you just at the opening credits or are you halfway through?

What kind of hustle and drive do you have to get to where you need to be and what path are you following.

I can tell you right now my friend that if you are going down a pre-set path, a well-worn track and you are just following the masses to success and glory, does that not make you a sheep?

Does that not make you a follower.

How can you cause a ruckus and break the ground if you are just stuck in a crowd aimlessly following the people who came before you and the ones after you?

The Hero’s journey, that’s how!

So follow me as we break down the journey of all the heroes before us so that we can carve our names in the Earth and the marble that is history because my friend you and I will never be the same again once we go on this journey, if you take my hand now, be certain that you are ready to put all that you know behind you because if you come with me down this road, this will be the beginning of the rest of your life.

Come with me take your lightsaber, your sword, your ring and your red pill and follow me on the greatest journey of your life!

The Ordinary World.

This is where the hero begins, they are living a most ordinary life, a mostly average life.

They may live on a farm like Luke or be working in a cubicle like Neo.

They are often an underdog, an unlikely hero in a world that may give them no meaning, no purpose and no credit.

The world that the chosen one is living in is often a safe one, a world that keeps them away from everything and everyone that may make them think outside of the tiny small universe, that those around the hero want to keep them locked inside of for the rest of their life.

The ordinary world is where the hero was born and raised but not necessarily their home.

It is home in that they may not know much else beyond it but it is not home by any other stretch of the imagination. 

They may return to the place ultimately, or they may not because this place is not necessarily home to them.

This place I simply where they begin.

The hero does not live here they simply reside and begin here.

The hero is often feeling trapped, feeling like they do not ultimately belong where they are.

Like something else is out there for them but they can not figure out where that may be and how to get there because they have been taught to play it safe and not push the limit.

This is where we all begin, particularly those of us who have a creative calling.

I mean why do you think that characters like Moana, Luke Skywalker, Rey or Neo speak to the masses? Let alone those of us who are creatively inclined?

This is because they could be any of us, they begin as a nobody, they live as a nobody, they are all of us in the ordinary world living as ordinary people. 

They are the hero and the possibility in all of us to be extraordinary.

The hero’s world at this point is so small that the scale of the greater world has to be too large for them to comprehend, too great for them to understand. 

The hero’s world at this point is hiding him from the truth. 

Although the hero is ready to see a greater world and knows they are destined for far larger things the world which can often be their mindset, will be holding them back.

Take the comparison of Luke and Rey;

Luke beyond wanting to go to Toche station to pick up some power convertors, he was ready to join the imperial academy so that he could become a pilot, however, his uncle wouldn’t let him go because he “needed him for one more season” on the moisture farm, this is his ordinary world holding him back and keeping him safe.

Whereas Rey did not want to leave Jakuu, she could have, multiple times, however, she had decided that she needed to stay because if she didn’t, her parents would come back for her and she would miss them.

This here is her mind, keeping her trapped, her mind is so fixed in this ordinary world that she has lived in voluntary poverty almost all of her life. 

Up until where we find her. 

All because the ordinary world that is her phycological trap is keeping her safe. 

So her circumstances not unlike Luke’s must force her to become great. 

This is where the creative translation comes in.

I said we are all in an ordinary life, we are all creatively, no one, but so too was Andy Warhol, Shakespeare, Raphael, Dwayne Johnson, Audrey Hepburn and so on.

One is not born the hero of their own story. 

We must become the heroes of our own stories.