With one foot in the Special World, the Hero is confronted by new sights and sounds, new learnings, surprises, adventures and experiences.
The Hero feels out of place, uncomfortable, inexperienced.
The Hero’s previous thoughts of the Special World are shaken by its realities.
The Hero begins to doubt himself, “What was I thinking to leave my Ordinary World behind?”
We’ve all been in situations like this.
The first obstacles the Hero meets are the Threshold Guardians.
Threshold Guardians are often emotional obstacles. It might be a feeling, a memory, a nightmare or anything that prevents the Hero from moving forward in his Hero’s Journey.
A common form of Threshold Guardian is the naysayer.
Naysayers are often the people closest to us such as our family, spouse, relatives and friends. They may be well meaning but their opinions are based on their own experiences. They do not share the same passion as you have regarding your calling. They are not inspired as you are.
Naysayers remind me of the Crabs in a Bucket Syndrome.
A single crab put in a lidless bucket is bound to climb over the lid and escape. Yet when more than one crab share a bucket, none can get out even when the lidless top and the sky above are an open invitation to freedom.
If one crab tries to elevate himself above all, the others will grab him and drag him down to share the common fate of the rest.
It is this way with crabs, and so it is the same with people. Some find themselves in a family or a circle of friends that will pull them down, if they strive to better themselves.
Don’t let crabs discourage you. Find people outside the bucket whom will pull you up and out.
So how do we deal with naysayers? The best way is to simply ignore them.
Once upon a time, a colony of frogs decided to migrate from their badly polluted pond to another with pristine water and teeming with food.
One summer day, hundreds hopped towards the promised land. The weather was searing hot and sharp stones peppered the hard baked ground.
One frog asked, “Why must the journey be made on such a sizzling day?” Another questioned, “Why choose such a punishing route?” Soon more questions with no easy answers echoed across the colony.
One frog decided to stop. Then another, and another. Soon all the frogs stopped, except one.
The little frog who was neither the fastest, nor strongest, struggled uphill until it arrived at the new pond.
The other frogs watched in amazement. They shouted at him, wanting to know, how only the tiny one got the courage and strength to accomplish the feat.
But the little frog seemed not to hear their loud cheers.
The other frogs then realised that the little frog was deaf!
It could not hear the self defeating doubts that stopped the other frogs from achieving their goal!
Once he Cross the Threshold, the Hero fully enters the Special World.
This is a defining moment in the Hero’s Journey. This is the time for action and the Hero taking 100% responsibility for achieving his goal.
Nice stringing of items.
ReplyDeleteHere you can try to bring out the iceberg theory or the one given by NLP on the curve between expectations and performance. Just elaborate a bit more on that will do.
Threshold Guardians can also be inner fear. Remember abt the gift that fear brings?
That can too be elaborated. Not just naysayers.