Is Your Hero’s Journey Calling You?

Have you ever been drawn to some sort of quest? My friend Chris Guillebeau just published his new book, The Happiness of Pursuit, about how embarking upon a quest can add meaning and a sense of fulfillment to your life. As I said in my endorsement of his wonderful book, “When a quest is a journey or a sought-after goal, it can be satisfying, fun, even paradigm shifting. But when a quest begins with an inner yearning and transforms into a calling, it becomes medicine for the soul, and this changes everything. The Happiness of Pursuit is an invitation to listen to the part of oneself that craves purpose. It says, ‘Hey! Wake up! Your unique adventure awaits you.'”

What Is A Quest? Here’s how Chris defines it:

A quest has a clear goal and a specific end point.
A quest presents a clear challenge. (If you can complete it quickly without breaking a sweat or risking anything, it’s probably not a quest.)
A quest requires sacrifice of some kind.
A quest is often driven by a calling or sense of mission.
A quest requires a series of small steps and incremental progress toward a goal.

I met Chris four years ago, when we were both on book tours at the same time. At the time, Chris was in the midst of quite a quest—he had committed to visiting every country in the world by the time he turned 35, something he completed last year. I was in the midst of dreaming up the quest I’m on now—to travel around the world in search of answers to my burning questions about anomalous healing. What’s happening at John of God? What are the shamans in Peru doing? What’s happening with these Tibetan physicians who can apparently diagnose everything about your health (and your financial situation and your family and your future) from simply feeling your pulse? What’s happening at Lourdes and Glastonbury and other famous healing sites where people are experiencing unexpected remissions from “incurable” diseases? I’m now in the midst of my quest right now, and Chris’s book helps me frame the experience so I am gleaning it for every ounce of fulfillment, fun, meaning, and soul growth this experience has to offer.

Why Go On A Quest?

Chris says we embark upon quests for a variety of reasons—self-discovery, reclaiming something lost, a response to external events (such as 9/11), a desire for ownership and empowerment, or taking a stand for something. Mine feels driven by intense intellectual curiosity, a desire for reclamation of what we once knew about medicine.

Perhaps some quests are ego-based, driven by an underlying sense of unworthiness. Unless we “prove” ourselves, we don’t feel good enough or important enough. Unless we impress others or demonstrate our courage to ourselves, we don’t feel worthy. But I think many quests move far beyond the shallow shell of the ego’s motivations into something that begins to more closely resemble the spiritual path.

The Hero’s Journey

I believe that at the root of most quests lies Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey. The hero doesn’t yet know she is a hero, because she’s still slogging her way through the ordinary world. Yet deep inside, she feels a restlessness, a yearning even, that draws her onto her quest. She feels the call, yet she refuses it at first. But the call doesn’t go away. It gets louder and more persistent. It visits her in dreams. It starts to become real, until she finally accepts the call.

She is then joined by magical mentors who prepare her for her journey. Armed with amulets and wisdom, she then embarks upon the road of trials, where nothing goes quite as planned. She meets friends and enemies. She receives magical assistance and encounters unexpected roadblocks. Things take longer than she expected. And then she approaches the innermost cave, where she faces the darkest of her demons. In the innermost cave, she must go alone—others can lead her right up to the door of the cave, but only she can fight the forces of darkness that want to prevent her from completing her quest. Fear floods her. Dragons breathe fire at her. The worst dragons often come from deep within herself. The battle between her ego and her Inner Pilot Light is often the most down-and-dirty fight. But she emerges victorious, having discovered that there is nothing to fear and nothing to slay, that the way through is not accomplished through fighting but through LOVING. She is surprised to discover that surrender, not fighting, is what actually saves her.

Having loved purely and surrendered humbly, she makes it to the other side, where she finds the holy grail. Having found it, it’s tempting to keep it for herself. After all, it was so hard earned and it might be threatened if you tell anyone you’ve found it. But because she is on a quest, and her motivations are pure, she knows she must take the holy grail back to her people in the ordinary world. She must embark upon the road back home.

Of course, the forces of darkness do not want her to succeed. She is thwarted. She faces further challenges. But Divine forces are on her side. She is ultimately protected, even though she will face challenges. She may face literal or figurative death one more time, just as she did in the innermost cave, but she will survive triumphant, humbly bringing the fruits of her quest back to those who have yet to muster up the moxie to embark upon a quest themselves. She may not be received back home the way she might wish. When she left the ordinary world, some may have felt rejected, abandoned, or judged. But as Rachel Naomi Remen says, “You can’t force a rosebud to blossom by beating it with a hammer.” Those who are ready will receive the holy grail. Those who aren’t may need to go on their own quests . . .

If the idea of a quest appeals to you, read Chris’s new book The Happiness of Pursuit. He doesn’t exactly spell out the quest the way I’ve described here (that’s more Joseph Campbell meets the Divine Feminine.) But his book offers some helpful inspiration for anyone who hears the phone is ringing and senses that it’s your turn to be the hero. When that phone rings, will you pick up?