There are several stages to the hero’s journey (Refer to Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
). The hero is called to go on a quest – an adventure – which he can refuse to go on. But more often than not, he reluctantly goes on the quest. While on the hero's journey, he encounters many difficulties and challenges that push him to the limits. A mentor may assist him in overcoming the difficulties and challenges by advising him on what path to take. The experience transforms him. The hero can return home and teach others what he has learned, or he can be like Siddhartha Gautama Buddha who decides to remain where he is and teach others there.
In your career, there comes a point when you are forced to embark on a hero's journey. It could be a job loss, or perhaps you are given a large project or promotion, which you perceive does not align with your career objectives and goals. Or you may perceive that you are not qualified for the promotion, or lack the technical skills to work on the project. You have the option to refuse the promotion or the project, but you know that from experience, if you decide to do so, it is career suicide, so you reluctantly accept the promotion. On this career journey, you encounter many challenges and difficulties – your lack of technical expertise prevent you from performing at peak level in the position, or you do not have the resources and tools to perform the role effectively. To keep your reputation intact, as well as step up into the new role, you seek a mentor, someone who guides you on which steps to take to achieve professional success.
Because of the many difficulties and challenges that you face on your career journey, you are forced to find innovative ways of doing things. When you engage with the challenges and difficulties that you encounter, you discover solutions that you never would have found had you not been placed in this situation. Although this career journey isn’t the one you wanted to take, or would have chosen for yourself, you discover that the experience has changed you forever, and you are transformed into what you could become – you grew into the person you never knew you could become. You can continue along the path, or you can teach what you have learned on your career journey to others.
This example may appear extreme to you, but we are constantly called to go on quests in our lives and careers every day, and we turn them down because we do not recognize them. We play it safe in our lives and careers, therefore we never stretch ourselves to grow into who we might become. The hero’s journey and your career journey are one and the same thing. How many times have you had an idea that if executed, would radically change the ways that “things” get done? What prevented you from going on the adventure of implementing the idea? We love to play it safe, but what if we decided that for a change, we will take the road less travelled?
In what ways can you use the concept of the hero’s journey as a guide to embark on a career journey that will stretch you to become the person you were meant to be? Remember that there are countless mentors waiting in the wings to support you. As the saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
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