Are you answering 'The Call'?

Failure.  It happens to everybody.  It's like an annoying disease that lingers in the shadows and creeps up on you when you're least expecting it to.  It gnaws away at your spirit and good intentions until there is nothing left but raw, exposed bundles of nerves, emotions and unanswered questions.  Even after the initial shock has dissipated, there are still remnants and reminders of what sparked 'the failure disease' in the first place.  Subtle reminders from people, giving you advice and anecdotes about whatever it is that you didn't accomplish or overcome.  They do this because they care but we all know that it doesn't ease the sting or help matters in any way.  The good part about failure though is that it can be a catalyst for positive change and help motivate you to take things to the next level in your life.  Think about all the failures and setbacks that you have experienced in your own life.  I can bet that after some of them or maybe even all of them, something help propel you to work harder, push the limits and find something in yourself that you didn't even know was there.  There is a narrative called, "The Hero's Journey" by Joseph Campbell.  This mono-myth  as it is technically termed, is a pattern of narrative that appears in drama, myths, legends, etc., and follows are hero/heroine on the steps of achieving great deeds for themselves or a civilization.  The are three stages associated with 'The Call'.  They are: The Departure, The Initiation & The Return.  You can read more in depth about the stages here:  Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey was a precursor to another good read titled, "The Wizard of Us" by Dr. Jean Houston.  The book shows and gives information from the beloved movie, "The Wizard of Oz" starring Judy Garland.  In the book, it analyzes the film and helps us to answer out 'call' and transform our lives from being able to just survive daily and taking it to another level to allow us to thrive within our own existence.  Using Dorothy, the Wizard, Scarecrow, Tin Man the Cowardly Lion and a slew of other characters, events & objects, Houston states in the book that each of these people or things is imperative to our own journey on the yellow brick road. In The Hero's Journey, there is the ordinary world and the special world.  The movie starts in the ordinary world, obviously.  Here the audience/reader is given the setup and the problems of the 'Hero' that he or she wants/needs to change.  This step is called The Call to Adventure.  Something shakes up the rhythm of everyday life for our hero, in Dorothy's case, Ms. Gulch wanting to take away Toto.  Dorothy refuses to give up Toto so she runs away instead only to run into Professor Marvel.  He represents what is known as the Meeting with the Mentor, somebody who has been or knows what she is going through.  Marvel is a phony psychic, so he plays off the fact that he knows that Dorothy's family is missing her.  Once the tornado hits, Dorothy Crosses the Threshold from the ordinary to the special world, Oz.  And the magic begins......

We all embark on our own journeys and pathways in this lifetime.  Some are rocky and treacherous, some are smooth and paved.  Journeys can be one of those things where either you readily seek them out or they are thrust upon you for some reason.  Take my illness that I had when I was a kid, for example.  I didn't ask to be in that situation and I can't think of a single person who would want to go through excruciating pain if they didn't have to.  That was my journey that I was called for but the journey was so much more than just overcoming an illness.  I've always told people that the best teacher I've ever had was my illness and I will say that till the day I die.  It was a catalyst to push me to find out that I love to help people and that I should make a career out of it in some way.  I teach kids, help people realize their goals in ways of health and fitness as well as my own.  I don't think you can say that the 'unexpecteds' of life don't change you in some way....life, death, disease, financial and personal relationships....they all have an impact on your journey in life.  Just as Dorothy met characters along the yellow brick road and in Oz, we ourselves meet people to help us along our way.  Some come in and go out very quickly and some stay for quite a while, usually to teach you something that you didn't know before.  Heed the lessons that they teach you.  Karma is definitely at work in this world and people coming into your life is no accident.  Dorothy learned something from each of her friends.  The Road of Trials that both Dorothy and yourself encounter on your journey contain tests and obstacles that she had to face.  The Wicked Witch of the West was always looming close by warning Dorothy of the ramifications of her defiance to the Wicked Witch.  But Glinda, the Witch of the North was always there when things were troublesome and these Meetings With The Goddess happened throughout the film.  How do you attribute this to you own life?  Through conversations with your friends and family, in which they try to teach or convey information is your meetings with the gods or goddesses.  These kind of conversations don't happen all the time, but when they do, usually you leave the meeting with something you

didn't know before, that helps you along your journey.

I could go on and on about this Hero's Journey and yes, there is so much more to this than what I've touched on in this little blog entry.  Bottom line:  Is there something that you are just itching to try in your life or something that a cosmic force is pushing you to do?  What if you had a fairy godmother or godfather come and tell you that you are destined for greatness, but you have to complete a journey to find it?  What kinds of trials and tests would you encounter and are you a strong enough person to overcome them?  Of course you are.  We all are.  Sometimes it just takes a tornado to come down and turn your world upside-down.

So, instead of failure, let's insert another word for it.  How about opportunity?  Each failure that we have should spark something deep inside to help us better ourselves for the next stop on our journey.  You don't have be superman or a WWE wrestler to prove that you're a strong person.  When I was a kid, I always thought that you had to look like the Hulk to prove that you were strong but now that I'm a lot older, I know that's not the case.  In fact, I think the bigger you are, definitely the harder you fall.  Look at David and Goliath, skill and intellect is what got David through and Goliath fell hard.  David took a bad situation of being small and turned it into opportunity for himself.  He defeated the giant ogre in the story and came out on top in the end.  Isn't that what we all strive for in our lives?  Coming out alright in the end?