In 1993, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell: A metaphor for personal transformation, the author wrote “The Hero’s Journey always begins with the call. One way or another, a guide must come to say, 'Look, you’re in Sleepy Land. Wake. Come on a trip. There is a whole aspect of your consciousness, your being, that’s not been touched. So you’re at home here? Well, there’s not enough of you there.' And so it starts.”
This is one of the most influential works on journey narratives, of a type that has been around for millennia in stories and myths. It is the result of analysis of dozens of stories, explaining how each represents the monomyth – the Hero’s Journey. Think about Siddhartha, the story of Buddha’s enlightenment, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection as the Son of God, or your favourite story or film – The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, the Hunger Games, Star Wars, The Lion King, Spiderman – does it follow this narrative cycle? What if the path of your personal transformative journey followed this journey narrative? Well guess what, it does...
The stages of the journey cycle may be placed into three categories: Departure, initiation, return. The ‘departure’ stage deals with the Hero’s Journey prior to his departing on the quest. ‘Initiation’ tells the story during the adventure. ‘Return’ describes the hero, now transformed by the ordeals he has faced, returning to his original world. The story begins and ends with the Ordinary World, a familiar world, but the quest passes through a Special World that is necessary for growth, through key events, trials, challenges, even, facing the possibility of death, which shape and transform the hero’s understanding of himself and his purpose and place in the world, and are lessons for personal transformation. Philosophically and theoretically informed by Jungian psychology and based on extensive mythology research, the Hero’s Journey reflects an inclusive conception of transformative learning theory: As such, The Hero’s Journey provides a valuable map for understanding the nature of the human transformational process. The more we can understand what it means to transform – which necessitates our having the capacity to relate to the experiences and decision points along the way – the better we can position ourselves to support the process with appropriate and effective methods. Does your favourite book contain these stages and follow this pattern? Note that few myths contain all the stages. What are the special stages?
Leon Vanderpol provides an excellent account of the stages in the Hero’s Journey in his excellent book about deep coaching “A Shift in Being”. Through critical self-reflection, The Hero’s Journey provides a framework that guides individuals in understanding that significant personal growth and transformation are often accompanied by challenge and tension, but often the greater the challenge, the more significant the personal fulfilment and Self-growth. This means that challenges, usually avoided in life, should be embraced. Truths about what it is to be human have been expressed in stories, myths and legends for aeons. Premised on the notion that myths are psychologically valid and emotionally realistic, they could be considered as accurate models of the human mind and applied to understanding stories of personal transformation. Individuals can come to appreciate that personal change and difficulty can be a positive force that leads to deeper Self knowledge, Self awareness and ultimate personal transformation. There is a multidimensionality to transformative learning and the Hero’s Journey captures it beautifully. When new knowledge challenges old ways of knowing and BEing, this takes the learner on a journey via an unknown space. This ‘space’ is often typified by confusion, uncertainty and challenge as the learner leaves the comfort zone of the known, crosses the first threshold upon departure into the Special World, and encounters trials as they are challenged to ‘unlearn’ old habits.
The past must be deconstructed before the learner can reconstruct the future, but once the future is reached, the learning can be said to have been truly transformative. Nurturing the soul is an attempt to embrace the messiness and disorder that is adult learning. Story, song, myth, poetry, and everyday life experiences may be used to nourish one’s soul, allowing emotions and feelings to assist one in learning about our relationships with the broader world. Metaphor and narrative are powerful tools in transformative experiences. In their replication of the trials and tribulations that we experience as part of understanding what it is to be human, fairy-tales, classics, myths and legends can give meaning to our lives.
Joseph Campbell found that all world hero myths pass through the same stages and fundamentally tell the same story, albeit in different ways. He found that regardless of time or place, the collective unconsciousness of the human race is represented in the recurring patterns across all cultures and that these universal themes sprang from the depths of the mind. Focusing on the quest of making sense of life and self, Campbell framed change and difficulty as a positive force despite the challenge of setbacks and difficulties that they can pose. Campbell identified various stages that may be identifiable in our lives, stages that do not necessarily present themselves in a linear fashion but in such a way that most individuals can see the similarities between myths and personal life events. In an adaptation of Campbell’s research, Hollywood screenwriter Christopher Vogler (1996) constructed the following twelve stages of The Hero’s Journey as representative of the sequence of events that indicates personal transformation:
Stage 1. The Ordinary World: The status quo. In ancient myth, Buddha lived within the safe walls of his father’s palace, before he embarked on his journey, which was his path to his enlightenment. This is the realm of the prophane, the familiar, the vanilla, of co-dependency and feeling powerless, like a victim. Where we start. Your relationships and activities no longer excite you. “Is this it?” you ponder. You know that you are searching for something, but you can’t quite put your finger on it yet. Life in the ordinary word has lost meaning, and you are not yet aware of your true purpose. You are ridden with fears and resultant limiting beliefs, but the ordinary world numbs these so that you are not yet aware of them. You feel invincible, but what you are actually feeling is numbness. In Jungian terms, this is the state of ego alienation. Truly, what the hero unconsciously seeks is to “know thyself” - to answer the perennial question, “Who am I?” If you find yourself in this stage, hold on. Do not attempt to rush the process. You will get your opportunity for adventure very soon. In the meantime, pay attention to the signs.
Generally speaking, life in the ordinary world is known, ordered and relatively secure, with everything seemingly in its proper place. But then something happens which shakes things up and hints that something is not quite as it could be. The ordinary world is a place of disillusion then, and the call to adventure becomes the avenue of escape. Are you sick and tired of always being sick and tired? Do you feel that you can achieve much more? That you are worth much more? Are you feeling drawn by the forces of self-improvement? Did you know that only 15 percent of people are self aware? It's ok to be in a minority: As Plato said "A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men." Do you want to face your fears head-on? Do you have an incomplete feeling or a feeling of being stuck that you can no longer live with? This is the Ordinary World: A domain of existential angst.
Stage 2. Call to adventure. The hero receives a mysterious message, an invitation, a challenge. Soon enough, you will get your wake up call. It is as if the Universe knows when we are ready for adventure and sends us a herald. Depending on how long we have been ignoring it, the call could present itself either “sublimely” or “painfully.” The likelihood is, it will be somewhat painful. It might manifest in the form of finding out you are ill, getting a divorce, losing your career, home, reputation, or financial status, or several of these. Maybe you want to “drop out” of the world for a while and travel or dive into philosophy? Maybe you want to change careers. You know deep down that whatever this is, you must do it. Regardless of how we are called, the call is always nerve-racking. But know that the call will continue to come back to you in progressively more painful ways the longer you ignore it. Your Ordinary World is at odds with the plans that life has for you, and you won’t be able to fight the Universe for ever: You have tried that – and look how that worked out for you. So, for the hero to be called away from the Ordinary World, there must be an event, a discovery, or a danger that stimulates him or her to depart from their apparent safe haven, and a traumatic event or a pending crisis is often the trigger. An event that disorients or unsettles the individual and the subsequent questioning of one’s assumptions and perspectives are two initial phases of transformative learning. Or it may be a subtle rising up from within that sets a person on a transformational path. This marks the move from ego and the known world to reflection and the unknown world. In either case, eventually there is a (strong and clear) clarion call to adventure, which creates an acute awareness of the need for a significant change, not just to impress people or be validated, but because you can’t go on like this, and we (the hero of our life story) must face what it means. Whenever people hear that call they will be, consciously or unconsciously, asking themselves, “What will happen if I say yes? Will I be safe? What will become of me if I do? What will people think of me? What will I lose?” Inherently these questions create a tension born of the need to leave that which is known and comfortable for the unknown and risky. And this requires the making of a grand choice. Fear, or the thought of losing validation from others, makes us hesitate accepting the call. This is particularly acute if the held fear is that you are not worthy. The realisation that you can’t go on as you are, as what you have tried so far simply hasn’t worked, sparks the departure. Although you may be afraid of the journey, the journey is what will ultimately dissolve your fears.
Stage 3. Refusal of the call. The Refusal of the Call comes in many forms and is often related to the fear of changing or growing. Anecdotal evidence over the last ten years reveals that such fear can be related to “putting your private and public ‘neck’ on the line.” But being afraid of what other people think, the need for external validation, and your lack of self-worth are a huge part of the problem. Marketing and social media accentuate and prey upon these fears. The Hero’s Journey is a timeless solution to a contemporary societal problem. Your refusal to heed the call may be the voice in your head saying “You are not worthy.” That is the crux of the problem and is why you need growth, to realise deeply that you are the hero of your life story; the main protagonist, as well as the author.
When you critically reflect on the obstacles that you confront, you may come to see how old ways of thinking have restricted your growth. You deeply realise that growth is sorely needed when you grasp that the only thing that is going to help you stop the cycle of drudgery, pain, and fear is you. “You are being guided and you are participating in the Great Mystery. And it has very little to do with you except your ‘yes’ seems to be crucial. It matters. It seems that God does not operate uninvited.” said Richard Rohr. You have a choice, but all heroes eventually say ‘yes’ to the call for adventure, but not without initial hesitation. The call to adventure (or to transform) is always accompanied by the free will of choice to accept or refuse the call; though greatly encouraged, it is never forced. If you are supporting people along the transformational path, the ‘yes’ is crucial, and people need the time and space to come to that decision of their own accord and on their own terms, even if that means that they straddle the two worlds and live with the tension that comes from not choosing to commit fully.
Transformative life coaches (TLC) and other ‘lightworkers’ or ‘way-showers’ can, however, play a vital role in how fear is overcome, so that the threshold into the unknown world can be crossed and the heroic journey begun. Have you committed to you own transformational journey or are you hesitating or refusing the call? Do you live straddling two worlds? What keeps you from ‘letting go’, surrendering, being present, and trusting the flow of the process? Is it fear or ego: are these the same? Ego stops us from moving into higher levels of consciousness, existence, and BEing.
What is keeping you living in the Ordinary World, and from committing to the transformational journey? Accepting the call is often the easier path in the long run. Opting out of the journey, on the other hand, resigns you to a miserable life. As violently as God smites Jonah and as aggressively as fate curses Phil in the movie Groundhog Day, the Self shakes your life with mishap after mishap until you finally wake up and say, “OK. I accept the journey.” By refusing the call, we binge on substances; on sex or relationships; on social media and our digital persona – the land of ego. We throw ourselves into workaholism, taking classes we don’t like, dating people we don’t like… all to distract us from our own frustration and anxiety with living lives that go against who we truly are.
The myth of King Midas is a story about someone was refused his call. The man with the “Midas Touch” worked hard and made lots of money, only to discover that his life had been a desolate wasteland, wherein even all the gold in the world could not satisfy him. Having chased off the trappings of success, he failed to find fulfilment. In this process of denying himself, he rejected his true riches, which were actually the unique set of interests, values, talents, and relationships he’d once had. Having been blinded by the golden illusion of “security,” he overlooked his true riches. He looked for breadcrumbs when he had a banquet by his side.
A person might want to be an artist, travel the world, or be a teacher, coach, or a monk, but instead he forces himself into a more secure and respectable life. That is merely procrastination, self-sabotage, and delaying the inevitable. The reality is that we cannot stop the inevitability of the journey. We can only make it more comfortable by allowing it to happen, or make it more painful by resisting. There is flow in discovering and living your true purpose. You can stop fighting, but only once you have faced your greatest fears in your personal Hero’s Journey.
Stage 4. Meeting the mentor or coach. Discourse and dialogue with others, in addition to support or guidance in various forms, represents a third crucial phase of transformative learning. Often the other person is someone older, with more experience, wiser, a seasoned traveller or way-shower, who has completed or at least embarked on their Hero’s Journey themselves. Someone who enables a cosmic viewpoint on the forks along the path – when assertive decisive decisions need to be made. This is essential for the coach to be able to signpost to the tools that aid the quest. The mentor need only be only a couple of steps ahead, but they need to be a guide on the path of Truth. In this sense, what you need is a coach rather than a mentor – a guide. A coach may be a person, but also books, people, or resources that our coach may signpost us to. Click here for my Suggested Reading List:
Regardless of how the coach appears, he or she will provide you with ideas and skills, helping you improve your craft, so that you can succeed in fighting your battles down the road. As people set out on the journey of transformation, navigating the tumult of the inner earthquake that signals deep reflection, the journey is not so much an external physical one as it is an internal spiritual one. The inner path will contain many obstacles and hurdles, and at times people will get stuck, struggle, and find it difficult to proceed without aid. This presents a magnificent opportunity for a coach to show up as that seasoned traveller of the worlds, the one who has him- or her-self faced the challenges and opportunities of “The Road Less Travelled” as per the book by psychiatrist Scott M Peck. In the book, he suggests ways in which facing our difficulties - and suffering through the changes - can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding. As described in another ‘pillar’ of transformation, and attributed to the Buddha, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. It is often through the early interaction with the coach that our hero gains the insight, self-awareness, and courage needed to drop their ego and to say ‘yes’ to the call, and cross the threshold from the known world into the unknown world. Your coach’s transformation enables your transformation. It is only this that prepares them to be the way-shower for you to transform to your true Self at the deepest level of your BEing. Eventually you will become your own coach: In reality your coach is your true Self: This is why you need to look inside. It’s just that others can guide you to doing just that until you become the hero of your own life story.
Stage 5. Departure: Crossing the (first) threshold. Entering the special world and adventure. We are not in Kansas anymore Dorothy. This is the beginning of transformation. The hero’s initial trepidation has now been alleviated by the coach, to the point that he is ready to step over the threshold between the known world and the unknown world. Examples include Siddhartha leaving home to become the Buddha, Alice’s falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, and Neo’s accepting Morpheus’ invitation to take the red pill in The Matrix. Once the hero passes the threshold of his own fear - there is no turning back. In life, crossing the threshold is moving out of your parents’ house, selling your possessions, quitting your job, and buying a one-way ticket to adventure. Sink or swim - you have committed to the journey. This can be humbling experience.
Here in the Belly of the Whale, the hero realises that the realm of adventure is altogether different from the romantic and mystical world he had imagined it would be. As a deep Transformative Life Coach (TLC), my purpose is to support you to cross that threshold, to help you commit to the unknown road ahead, and to sense the rightness and goodness of your true path, should you so choose it. Commitment does not mean that all fear and doubt has been eliminated. So much still remains unknown, and life's big questions – “Who am I? What is my purpose? What else is there to life?” - remain unanswered. At times you will want to give up when you face what appeared to be unsurmountable barriers, or when life's ordeals batter you. In these moments your coach extends a hand of compassion and strength, helps heal your wounds and bruises, and attends to your pain and fear. Your deep coach is a beacon of light and Real Personal Power, a bastion of hope against impossibility, one who helps you tap into that place within where all is known and all is well, where all can be looked upon with perfect equanimity and perfect acceptance. Your coach gives you the key to presence.
Stage 6. Tests, allies, enemies. Trials. Being a hero is hard work. Your biggest enemy may be your Self-doubt, negative Self-talk and your own inner critic. Your limiting beliefs are the internal obstacles that may be restricting your progress. You need to take divinely inspired action. Only this will lead to triumph. Love your Self, love your challenges. This is the real meat of the transformative journey. The road of trials is the period when the hero must face the obstacles that arise on his path, identify allies and enemies (both whom help prepare him for the ordeals yet to come and which lead to real, permanent growth), and directly confront his greatest fears, including abandonment and death. Adversity is how the Universe tests us to see if we are truly strong enough to handle what treasure may come to us. Siddhartha endured Mara’s temptations in the forest, just as Jesus was presented with Satan’s three temptations in the desert. Bruised and battered from having already passed many trials and tribulations, the hero then faces the final ordeal and is tempted to call the journey off so that he may settle down and finally rest: But, the hero must face his greatest fear and conquer it.
Stage 7. Approach to the innermost cave (the second threshold). This is a descent into a kind of hell, a low point on your journey that has you on your knees and questioning your ability to make it through. All that you have learnt so far comes into play now, and each test, once passed, makes you stronger, more confident, and more Self aware. 'The Obstacle Is The Way' as Ryan Holiday describes Stoic philosophy in his book of the same title. Challenges are mere stepping-stones on your true path and must be passed to reap the rewards of self-awareness. When viewed in this way they may be embraced and loved as they are essential to your growth: “I was born when all I once feared - I could love” wrote Rabia Al Basri. Each successive challenge requires you to dig deeper into yourself to survive and endure. These culminate in a confrontation with your greatest fear and facing the possibility of psychological death.
Stage 8. The supreme ordeal. Time to face the biggest challenge yet: The greatest treasure; the hero’s worst fear; a crisis; the abyss; the slaying of your dragon. Remember, your dragon will always lead to an internal fear or false belief: Fear of failure or of not being worthy. Do you need to conquer a fear? Do you need to dissolve a false belief? If the answer to these questions is yes, only you can identify them. Now comes the thing we must overcome to be a better version of us. This is something we have probably run from most of our life: It’s what scares us the most. This the hero’s darkest hour, when all confidence may be lost and all seems bleak, yet he is able to rise up against anguish and seemingly overwhelming odds. This is the toughest challenge, when you let go of your ego and your old way of thinking. You face death – the death of your egoic self. This is the critical point in your transformational journey. Only through death, or appearing to die, can we be reborn, experiencing a metaphorical metamorphosis. This is an essential aspect of the human transformative experience. The falsities and limitations of your ego-based self-concept will not pass away without a struggle. You may even begin to see challenges as enemies, dark forces that thwart your efforts to live a more authentic, aligned life. But once you cross the threshold and commit to the journey of self-actualisation, no more will you ignore or stuff away these shadowy aspects. You will face them head on, lean in to them, attend to them, and see them not as your enemy but as your teacher, so that you may learn the lessons that need to be learned and pass courageously through.
In 'Real Power', Janet Hagberg writes “At this point you hit the Wall. At the Wall we cannot move forward without embracing our own personal shadow behaviour, behaviour that we don't want to look at but can't seem to avoid anymore. Going through it and learning the it has to teach us is life changing. The decision to move into the Wall requires courage, for in the Wall we face our darkest self: Our shadow. Going through the Wall is a process. It consists of letting go of your ego, giving up control, moving beyond your intellect, becoming intimate with a Higher Power, embracing your whole self with all your shadows, and facing your core with its darkness and light. The wall is a place of transformation. Once having experienced the Wall, you will never be the same again. It is exhilarating and it is painful. It is never easy. But in it are glimpses of wisdom and light. And it is healing at a deep level, a soul level.” You must face the limiting manifestations of your ego and, the supreme ordeal, to die to your false self. What does it mean to die to yourself? In 'The Power of Now', Eckhart Tolle writes “The secret of life is to die before you die and find that there is no death.” The first ‘die’ he refers to is the death of our ego and it's false creations; The second ‘die’ refers to physical death. The essence of who you really are is far more magnificent than the self that your ego has created and that it projects into the world as your identity. In this sense, death is not a physical death but the stripping away of all that is not you; It is the mighty act of releasing and forgiving a myriad of half-baked truths that have become your internal reality. The ego creates the false self and it is the ego, not you, which identifies with it. Death of the ego is when that bubble bursts and you see yourself as you truly are, and in that moment you will know that you are much more than you have ever experienced before. As long as we are attached to form (our thoughts, our emotions, our possessions, our wealth, our social status, our achievements, our relational attachments) and identify ourselves as that, we will live with a mistaken identity and resist dying to ourselves. This resistance manifests itself as the trials of the transformational journey. The epic struggle of our ego, to remain relevant, to go on running the show, to insure today looks like yesterday.
Once you give up your ego, the trials are completed: The lessons may stop. When ego stares into the abyss of its own demise it roars, as in the Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gently into that good night,… Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Deep down the ego works tirelessly to convince you that by letting go completely of these identity markers you will lose who you are and you will cease to exist. Why do we react so badly when we feel that one is challenged or threatened? It is our ego that is triggered. All the tests and ordeals along the road of trials are designed to teach you the greatest secret of life: There is only one life, and you exist despite the ego’s own best efforts to convince you that its death is your death.
Once the hero overcomes the ordeal and transcends the Wall a move from “power by reflection”, into “power by purpose” has occurred, a major transformation. There has been a mystical translation into the depths of the soul, a shifting of where you perceive your sense and source of identity. As Janet Hagberg wrote about such Jesus- or Yoda-like figures “The ultimate objective, whether stated or not, is to empower others: To raise them up, love them, give them responsibility, trust them, learn from them, and be led by them. They feel they are merely a conduit of ideas, energy, and power to be given out or passed along. Their role is not primarily to solve the problems of the world but to be a powerful presence in the midst of the unsolvable situation and to work in our own way in easing pain.” Is that the end of the journey? Is the transformation process complete? Of course not; Human life is endlessly progressive. It is a journey without end. A spiral upwards, not a loop. The journey is the purpose. Yet by this stage in our development we have come a long way in letting go of our illusory ego-based self-concept and are now grounded in a far more authentic expression of our true Self. It is now time to reap the reward that comes to those who travelled this far along the road less travelled. It is time for you to claim it. Once we slay our dragon, we are changed. Slaying our dragon can be an internal shift or an external thing but there is always an internal shift. We become someone different: A part of us dies psychologically and we are reborn anew.
Stage 9. The reward (seizing the sword): Special recognition; power; a treasure. At this stage you can take a breath and celebrate the rewards of the quest. You have changed dramatically. You begin to experience Grace. You are ready to return home, as a different person, to begin to change that world. The lessons learned have empowered you to effect positive change on that world, and the world will never be the same to you. At this point, you usually take possession of the treasure you have been seeking – your reward - for me that was joy, love, presence, peace, compassion, Truth, and purpose. In stories this is often an external reward. In transformational journeys, the reward is often a deep and abiding sense of connection with your true Self, and the clarity of knowing your purpose and place in the world. When the hero finds the reward and ‘Seizes the Sword’, certain perspectives about themselves and others are transformed and inner power is realised. You are emotionally strengthened and more resilient in coping with setbacks. Many more lessons remain to be learned, but because of your transformative experience, you will approach these ordeals very differently than you did in the past. Now that your way of being has shifted significantly, and you have been rewarded with a set of capacities granted only to those who have committed to the Hero’s Journey. You are a master, growing in mastery each day.
Stage 10. The road back. The road home to the known world presents its own unique challenges: The world has changed, and so has the hero. The hero may not be changed or accepted back, changed as he is now. You will realise how capable your new Self can be. You will realise that previously you were your only limiting beliefs.
Stage 11. The resurrection. Death; the rebirth. The approach to the Self is metaphorically portrayed in myth as the hero’s confrontation with the dragon or demon. To be sure, it is a frightening experience for the hero because it necessitates his being wounded. When the hero faces the final ordeal, he’s confronted by his own smallness: His ego. In order to succeed, the hero must surrender. This act of letting go transforms him: Hercules becomes of God; Jesus rises to Heaven; Buddha awakens; Luke becomes a Jedi Knight. And the same for all other heroes. When the inflated ego moves beyond his voices of desire, fear, and control, he overcomes temptation, letting the infantile part of him mature.
Stage 12. Return with the elixir (freedom to live). Return to the Ordinary World and status quo. An upgrade to a new level: A new life. The hero has outgrown his old life. Nothing will be quite the same again. You may feel at odds with old friends or circumstances: You may not be able to explain the wisdom you have gained to those who have not begun the journey. You may no longer resonate with or desire to return to those people, places, and things. The wisdom you have gained, however, supports you in deeply accepting whatever may come to pass, for you know that you are the creator of your life experience, and this helps you to transcend the difficulties of adjusting in the old world. You may now want to change the world, enhance it, embrace it. You have left your old self behind. You can’t even go back. The person that you identified with, that wasn’t your true Self, is gone. You have a new story now, and it’s not a story, it’s your Truth.
Your old life may seem like an aeon ago, and mundane: Through the encounter with the Self, the ultimate treasure, the Holy Grail, or the Force. But the journey does not stop there. Just as there is a refusal of the call, there is also a refusal to return. It would be easy from Moses to stay on Mount Sinai, for the monk to stay in his cave of Enlightenment, for Jesus to remain in Heaven. After all, for the hero who has tasted paradise, returning to live in an imperfect world has its challenges and is not very appealing. But the true hero realises that to remain in paradise alone would be to destroy its beauty. His selfishness would sever his connection to the Self. This leaves him with one choice: The redemption of the hero’s journey is found in the hero’s returning to the ordinary world of pain and suffering to serve others. Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and all the other prophets come back to spread the message of freedom from suffering.
In order to be able to support others in their own transformational process, you must have been the hero in your own. When you have, you will become a true way-shower, a deep transformative coach, an Enlightened Witness, for those who are on the Way but are falling on hard times in the world. So many are being called to this adventure, to embark on the heroic journey that asks them to leave the comfortable home you have created for your Self and to follow the leading of the heart that calls them into a whole new paradigm of living. But it’s undoubtedly challenging, and therefore coaches and mentors and others who have taken the road less travelled are very much needed – you are needed.
Acknowledge your action, accept Grace, claim your reward, and get to it… As long held personal assumptions are identified and deconstructed, periods of uncertainty, chaos and tension can ensue. Yet, in recognising such challenges as critical starting points for personal change and growth, and appreciating that strength and resiliency will generally follow, the birth of a new person with new Self-knowledge and Self-awareness can be extremely liberating. In this way, you will find the hero-within-your-hero, and your journey will be lifelong. Also know that we can have a Hero’s Journey every day. Especially the internal ones. Our dragon can be any of our fears or limiting beliefs, which come from our fears. We are all on a journey; each and every day. There is a circle, a cycle, a process. Once we realise this, we see that life isn’t just a tumble dryer of turbulence and chaos. During this journey, you will be challenged, you will stumble, you will fall, and when life gets hectic, you may wonder why you ever took the road less travelled in the first place. But through all the trials and tribulations, all the sleepless nights, and painful battles, you will be filled with excitement and enthusiasm. You will be at peace with your Self. You will smile, you will laugh, you will dance, and will love your Self, your life, and the world.
The people around you will gravitate towards you. Where do you begin? You begin by “following your bliss.” What irresponsible dream sends the butterflies in your stomach into a raging storm of flapping wings? What spreads a nervous smile of excitement across your cheeks at the thought of finally being alive? You know what to do…
This is the path to freedom. As the Genie says in Aladdin "To be free. Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in the world."
As Don Vito Corleone said in the iconic film 'The Godfather' "Great men are not born great, they grow great." The only true path to greatness is the fire of the soul. As Matt Main says in his book 'A Gold Medal is a Wonderful Thing' that this is achieved by "Transmuting the lessons in life, both the ups and downs, through the soul, to come back in a higher, elevated way of BEing."
Adam Forrest said in the film 'The perfect Man' "It's like all the bad stuff that you went through that you hated along the way, the people who disappointed you, the things that didn't go the way you wanted, suddenly, you feel grateful to them, because those are the things that got you to here." The bad things become the propellant, the catalyst, the fuel, the juice. Bring it on. Life is like a slingshot or a catapult: Having to pull back before propelling forwards, firing us right at, through, and beyond our dreams.
To conclude, a quote from Joseph Campbell “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder (separation): fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won (initiation): The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man (return).”
Sending you love, light, and blessings.
Please let me know if you would like to join my 'VOICE for men' group: 'Vulnerability & Openness Is a Choice Ensemble', where men can find their strength, courage, and authenticity, by dropping their egocentric fears and instead communicate openly with vulnerability. It will change your life. It will empower you. This community is a safe space for men to connect and discuss philosophy, spirituality, positive psychology, and timeless truths, to share our experience, strength and hope, and to find solutions to our pain and fears.
Olly Alexander Branford MD, MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
My gift is to be your guide. Let me know if you would like to continue this conversation...
Email me: hello@transformativelifecoach.co.uk
“Transformative life coaching uniquely creates and holds the space for you to see your self afresh, with clarity, and step into new ways of BEing, which will transform how you perceive and intuitively create your world. My work is to guide you to raise your own conscious awareness to the level that you want to achieve.” Olly Alexander Branford
My coaching themes and services - I work 1:1 and in groups with men who are looking for: Transformative Life Coaching, Transformational Coaching, Life Coaching, Personal Coaching, Positive Psychology Coaching, Recovery Coaching, Trauma Informed Coaching, Work Addiction Coaching, Workaholism Coaching, Addiction Coaching, Mindfulness Coaching.
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Hello,
I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my website for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching. I am here to serve you.
See you soon,
Olly Alexander Branford MD, MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.