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How to Live a Mythic Life
Remember: You are the hero or heroine of your journey
Joseph Campbell, author, teacher, and mythologist, might best be known for explaining the hero’s journey in his celebrated book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It’s a journey we all must take. It’s not an easy path, and the goal isn’t a pot of gold at the end (or a sexy spouse, sports car, house, etc.). The goal is self-actualization. And it’s not a selfish pursuit, because the wisdom you acquire is shared with others to make your community and the world a better place.
It starts in the ordinary world. Here, everything is “normal.” Or at least, normal to you. You might feel that something is off, or as if you were meant for more, but you don’t really know what. You might even brush this hunch aside, believing that life is “good enough.”
I walked through the halls of my corporate office space, holding my laptop, notebook, and a large thermos of tea. A coworker asked, “Hey Lisa, how’s it going?” When someone asked this semi-rhetorical question, the common refrain was to respond with an eye roll and an exasperated sigh, muttering, “just living the dream.” And so, as if on queue, that’s what I said. However, I felt a slight pain in my heart as I repeated this response for the umpteenth time. Because if I wasn’t living the dream now, would I ever?
At the time, my marriage was even…
