When faced with the daunting challenge to step out of his Ordinary World, distasteful as it may be, the hero often flinches, doubts, or runs the other way.
Hesitation may be from a sense of duty or obligation to family and friends, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his Ordinary World.
The main thing holding the Hero back is fear – fear of the unknown, doubt and uncertainty.
FEAR is nothing but False Evidence Appearing Real.
Have you seen a 1000 pound elephant tethered to a slender rope tied to a small stake hammered into the ground?
Obviously, the adult elephant could pull up the stake and walked away anytime it wants.
Ever wondered why then does the magnificent elephant allow itself to be tied to the tiny stake.
The answer is FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real.
The adult elephant wrongly believed that it does not have the strength to free itself of the rope.
You see, when the elephant was a baby, it was tethered to a thick rope tied to a stake firmly hammered into the ground.
The baby elephant would try several times to get free, but it lacks the strength to break the rope.
After a year, the stake and the rope are still strong enough to keep the small elephant tethered, although it continues to try, unsuccessfully, to get free. At some point, the animal accepts that the rope will always be too strong and so it gives up trying.
When it reaches adulthood, the elephant still remembered how, for a long time, it had wasted its energies trying to escape.
At this stage, the trainer can tether the elephant with a slender rope tied to a broom handle, and the elephant will make no attempt to escape to freedom.
Isn’t it amazing that these animals which could at any time break free from their bonds are stuck where they are because they believed they couldn’t break free?
Put another way, FEAR – false limiting beliefs - keeps us stuck to our circumstances, however distasteful we may find it.
The Call to Adventure always beckons as we are all heroes and have our own Hero’s Journey.
Even if our answer is “no”, the Call remains waiting for the Hero in us to overcome our FEAR to become the Hero that we are destined to become.
The call will persist until the Hero realises that if we don’t answer the Call of our own Hero’s Journey, no one else will.
And, that's a sad story.
Hmm..basically, you get the main idea.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can add in some of these things. When talking about reluctance to shift forward, besides those that you list, can also be something that they enjoy now with the current status and situation which will be sacrificed if they move on.
Main things that holds back people is that. But what about limiting beliefs like no self-worthiness, no sense of responsibility to self success, hopelessness in self...etc, might want to refer to notes for that.