Over the course of the last several months, I’ve found myself reflecting as I’ve finished up my degree, started working full-time, and have dabbled in freelance projects. Most of this reflection has centered around the challenges I’ve faced to get to where I am now in both life and career.

During the years I’ve spent working toward this degree, I’ve confronted being rejected from the program I wanted to be part of, battled a variety of physical and mental struggles, and wrestled with a deep desire to succeed in the creative part of my life.

One topic I’m really drawn to is The Hero’s Journey. I love the idea of progress, of growth, of challenging oneself to become something greater. But when I first started writing about it, I hesitated because I didn’t feel qualified to talk about any kind of completed journey a “hero” would take on. I wouldn’t consider myself a “hero” in the theatrical or cinematic sense of the word.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Hero’s Journey, I want to share some key parts of the cycle. The journey starts from a position or situation an individual finds most comfortable. That means if you feel like all is well, that you have things under control, or that you’re enjoying a particular state of life, this cycle might be starting for you.

Answering the Call

The next step is what’s commonly referred to as the call to action. You might receive an invitation to push yourself, to learn something new, try something unfamiliar, or even just meet someone new. The whole point of this step is to push you out of your comfort zone, to invite you to leave that state of ease.

What follows is a two-path step: on one hand, you have the option to reject the call, and on the other, to accept it. Rejection may delay any reason to leave your comfort zone, but it only puts off the moment, the next call to action will come. Acceptance, however, launches you into a rigorous journey, one that will demand growth, bring highs and lows, and strip away your belief that you know what you’re doing. It’ll challenge every skill you think you possess.

The Decisions We Make

This is the part of the journey I really want to talk about. It’s the part I feel most people are in, and the part where most people decide to give up.

Upon further reflection, I realized I could share insights and perspectives that relate to The Hero’s Journey. And to begin, I’d like to share a quote that I feel perfectly captures some of the toughest moments within it:

“Fight on, my men,” Sir Andrew said,
“I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I’ll lay me down and bleed a while,
And then I’ll rise and fight again.”

I love this quote because, like I mentioned, a lot of people get discouraged when faced with challenges they feel are too heavy. In this life, I truly believe we’ll all face challenges that push us further than we think we can go. And I believe that’s important—because if we’re never pushed or encouraged to grow, what’s the point of each new day or opportunity?

Not every opportunity will be easy, and we won’t always have the skills we need to succeed right away. I think we have to recognize that we will fail, probably not just once, but many times—as we try to achieve or perfect a certain skill or characteristic. And that’s okay. It’s normal.

Just because you get knocked down doesn’t mean you should stay down or refuse to move forward. Take a lesson from Rocky Balboa:

“It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
It’s not a matter of if you’ll get hit—it’s about when it’ll happen, and whether you’re prepared to take it, humble enough to learn from it, and strong enough to pick yourself up and move forward with the lesson learned.

The interesting part about The Hero’s Journey is that you’re constantly putting the new skill or characteristic you’re trying to learn to the test. 

You don’t get the ability just because you accepted the quest. It only comes at the end of the journey, after all the failures, that you actually become better. It serves as a testament that every wound and setback mattered, that the process works.