Who doesn’t love a feel-good movie? Especially one where the underdog overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles against all odds to achieve success or win a prestigious award, match, or tournament. From the small group of rebels in Star Wars who take down a Tyranus Galactic empire, to Rocky Balboa’s famous bouts with Apollo, to the unassuming panda that turned out to be the legendary dragon warrior, we love watching ordinary characters overcome adversity with purpose to achieve something extraordinary. I believe that because we always see ourselves in the position of the underdog, something pulls on our heartstrings when the main character of these stories commits to a cause to become someone different - changed for the better.
American writer Joseph Campbell wrote of his theory of a Hero’s Journey, a life path that is divided into 17 stages and often organized into three acts: Act I - the departure, Act II - the initiation, and ACT III - the return. Act I is a call to adventure. Sometimes the hero will start out by refusing the call, but eventually the hero will commit to the task. Act II is a series of trials set for the hero who is undergoing a transformation. Our hero does their best with what they know and will likely fail again and again until they meet a mentor or a supernatural aid who guides our hero to do something vulnerable and outside their comfort zone. With a renewed sense of self, our hero is able to overcome the trials of their journey. Act III is when we see our hero return to their ordinary world with a different perspective. Most movies/stories follow this format, especially the ones that have an underdog theme. We gravitate towards these storylines because we wish to have the same courage to aspire for change and the desire to answer our own call to adventure in hopes of becoming something/someone different.
In our fantasies, we always see ourselves as the hero of our story. We give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and we somehow prevail. In reality, we can fail to explicitly reveal our wants because we either think this will prevent them from materializing or we want to avoid the embarrassment of not achieving our goal. We picture everything that can go wrong and ultimately we turn away and don’t answer our call to adventure for the change that we want, be it a skill you’ve always wanted to work towards, taking a class, or signing up for that 5K run.
To answer our own call to adventure, we have to set goals. We are taught that goals must be clear and tangible, but to answer our call to adventure, our goals need to be more than this. They need to be purpose-driven - something that challenges who you are as a person. Let me explain with a personal example.
In my journey to begin running, the goal wasn’t simply to complete a race. It was to challenge my idea of who I was and to see if I was able to rise up to the challenge to explore who I could become. When setting a goal with a specific purpose and a deep meaning, I like to imagine a child repeatedly asking the question “why” to every aspect of the goal, questioning your resolve or your call to adventure until you dig deep enough to find a pure purpose:
I want to run. → Why? → I want to get fit. → Why? → I want to see if I can do it. → Why? → I’ve always wanted to try. → Why? → I really admire the people who accomplish amazing feats. → Why? →I think they have great determination and drive → Why? → They must have an affinity for it. → Why? → They have more talent than I do. → Why? → Because I don’t think I’ll be good enough. → Why? → I don’t have the talent, time, or drive → Why? → It’s a new skill that I don’t know and it’ll be embarrassing to start. → Why? → I don’t want to look like I’m struggling in front of others. → Why? → I care about what others think of me, and I don’t want to fail. → Why? → I want to fit into the box that everyone thinks I belong in. → Why? → It feels terrifying to not be in that box → Why? → That’s outside my comfort zone and it feels like a long reach.
We gain control of our story when we answer the call to adventure.
At this point in the digging process, I realized the goal of running was not just about running; it was about fundamentally challenging who I thought I was and whether or not I could sit in the driver’s seat of my own story.
We gain control of our story when we answer the call to adventure. There are a lot of people who will settle for what they have, not necessarily because they’re happy with it, but because it is comfortable. It seems impossible to push beyond the boundaries you’ve created for yourself. It is a challenging task that involves the acceptance of who you are in order to grow to who you wish to become and knowing that in doing so you will encounter hardship that will test your resolve for change, whatever that change may be.
A call to adventure sounds lofty and exciting and it involves many stages of planning or connecting with the right people to help get to where you need to go. But know that these are logistical problems that are relatively easy to manage. The big determining factor of your success is your decision to start and the goals you set for yourself. As you begin on your adventure, you will likely encounter the stages of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. You will find obstacles, help, inner turmoil, and transformative realization and you will return with a new perspective on your previous, ordinary world. You will cultivate new meanings to your life and realize you were always more capable than you ever thought.
If you want to search for a new perspective and new meaning, if you want to take back the steering wheel and write your own ending to your story, if you are curious to know what is possible and what lies beyond the confines of your own construct, answer that call!
Gotta run!