The Everyday Hero

“The Hero with a Thousand Faces” in Brief

First published in 1949, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” has inspired multiple generations and has been the source of influence for some of the most popular films and movies we know today.?

While the author covers numerous disciplines ranging from philosophy to comparative mythology, the core of the book is “The Hero’s Journey” - a process of personal growth, development, and change of an individual into something greater than what they started as.

For simplicity, I’ll explain the “Hero’s Journey” in 3 parts:

While the book covers these parts in much greater detail. The following is also a good way to visualize the journey:

Why “The Hero” Story is so Popular

Consider some of your favorite stories from childhood, books, or film. When we think of “The Hero” - what’s the images that come to mind the quickest?

Collectively, we think of someone with a superpower that accomplishes something extraordinary. The hero that saves the world, the Kingdom, the galaxy, and / or the day.

If you think about it – why are these hero stories so numerous and so popular?

Why have people been writing about heroes for centuries?

Part of the reason I believe, is that heroes are meant to inspire us. More specifically:

• They are meant to show us what can be accomplished
• They encourage us not to fearful of the new or the unknown
• Show us that we too can rise to the occasion?

“The Hero’s Journey” are essentially timeless stories of inspiration – with practical applications in the real world.

The Development Journey

When we think of “A Hero” we often only visualize “the end result” - someone with extraordinary skills, talents, characteristics, or powers that we “every people” don’t have.?

What’s easier to forget is that “The Hero” rarely starts as one, but rather goes through a long process of self-discovery, self-improvement, and self-realization to see just what they are capable of achieving.

It would be wonderful if we could take the same inspiration we feel when we read or watch a hero story and apply it to parts of our life that may be “less heroic” but nonetheless, meaningful and worthwhile to us.

An example I’ll use to illustrate this - learning a new software program to successfully manage a project – you can’t get more mundane than that.

While on the surface, one would not consider mastery of a new software program “heroic,” the “hero’s journey” one takes to accomplish this is strikingly similar.

Let’s examine parts of the process:

While the story above likely won’t be a blockbuster movie anytime soon - the end result of the journey shouldn’t be overlooked or downplayed:

• You choose to take on something that was challenging and unexpected
• You struggled to succeed at it
• Because you succeed, you have a new sense of confidence you didn’t have before
• I would even say, even if you failed, you would better off because you know you tried

We Can Be “The Hero” Of Our Own Story

In sum, “The Hero” rarely begins as one - often there is nothing “heroic” about them at all.

Rather, they go on a long journey of trails and struggle, growth and development, hard and challenging times to obtain the powers they’ll need to accomplish something.

As simple as it may sound, they become “The Hero” by:

• Studying | Training | Seeking Assistance
• Testing Their Skills
• Overcoming Self-Doubts
• Facing Challenges
• Failing and Eventually Succeeding
• Returning with a new sense of confidence

In short, if “The Hero’s Journey” could be used as a template for something as grandiose as “saving the day” – it could also be used as a template for how we could grow to become something better than our former selves.

Whether a superhero or office worker – whatever challenge you facing, if you are unsure of how to start, consider “The Hero’s Journey” for ideas and inspiration.