You’re probably aware of what is holding you back. You can probably point to generally what is wrong, what isn’t working. Most people have self-awareness, and still do not feel they know what they can do about their situation. They feel trapped. This is their lot in life, the cards they were dealt. What if you could take your past injuries, disappointments, hidden shame, and failures, and begin to use them to understand and unlock the person you were designed to become? Would it be exciting to be working on things that you know are important, without fear or failure or inadequacy? Each of us has a hero inside us, waiting for the key to unlock our capabilities. The framework ahead is designed to help you move into your true self and into the heroic story God has created you to live.
Why heroes?
This isn’t just for fans of comic books or super hero movies. Heroic stories share traits across all human history. From heartwarming stories from our neighborhood news, to the patriotic tales of the founding of great nations, we like to hear about real people doing great things. The Bible is also filled with real stories that our creator gives us to understand His plans for us beyond the mundane present life. His guidance to us empowers us to realize that we are built with potential for fearless work with infinite impact. There are also, of course, fun stories throughout literature, legend and entertainment which stir us to excitement and dreams of capabilities beyond what we see in our daily lives.
An author named Joseph Campbell in the mid-20th century popularized the concept of The Hero’s Journey. He looked across literature and religions around the world and compared them, searching for common patterns. Campbell was not a Christian. He was also not the first or only writer to collect heroic elements from across our human experience, but he gave us a popular framework for spotting many of the common elements. So now, when we read or watch stories with a heroic adventure, including the adventure of our own lives, we are able to spot our mentors or guides and moments when we courageously step into the unknown. By considering the ten main elements collected here, we can examine ourselves and work to live and lead a stronger, purposeful, and heroic life.
The framework
The Heroic Journal framework starts with a collection of ten forces arranged in a wheel. Six forces are ones you want to grow, cultivate, and empower. Four are negative, these forces you want to identify, resist, and eliminate. Every spoke matters. When we do our work and balance our wheel, attending to the forces that have the greatest need, we more toward more heroic living. Living with a wheel that is imbalanced and wobbling, weakens us and prevents us from doing the powerful work we are called to do. We don’t fixate on the parts of our wheel which are strongest, we work on strengthening the forces where we measure weakest.
A brief tour
This isn't just a taxonomy, or collection of heroic elements, like in an encyclopedia. Each of these forces, that are well-known from movies, comic books, literature and the Bible, maps onto parts of your real life right now.
- The first force in our framework is your Origin Story, which is your history, upbringing and wounds that set you up for where you are.
- Weakness is the first negative force, it is your vulnerability, often kept secret, that once named, begins to lose its grip on you.
- Next is Control of Power, discipline and restraint is better than unconstrained or reckless impulse.
- Our Nemesis causes us sabotage from within, leveraging our pride, fear and shame until we learn to resist.
- A Mentor is a guide who helps through the granting of wisdom, compressing the time to learn and providing us with valuable feedback.
- A well-prepared hero is ready with Tools & Armor, more than just hammers and swords, these can be abstract equipment like having good routines and boundaries.
- Working against a Secret Identity means living with integrity as your true self which build real strength and effectiveness.
- Isolation weakens us, so having an Alliance provides us with connection, encouragement and a shared purpose.
- Sacrifice means letting go of the version of yourself when things weren’t working well, dropping your ego and a little comfort will lead you to a greater new identity.
- Finally, once you have your forces balanced, you will more clearly understand The Quest, which is the call of real purpose and why you are here.
The Biblical connection
This framework isn’t just fan lore about fiction and comic books with some Bible verses sprinkled in. I learned in middle school that hero has a meaning close to a god or at least half-gods. But in a Biblical sense, the idea of striving to move toward the heart of God is a good thing. We were created in His image and Jesus modeled how we are to live. But the Bible also contains characters, who were real people. People like Moses, David, Peter and Paul, who were all very human and very broken. We get their stories as further lessons on how we can do great and heroic things too, despite ourselves. We just have to get out of the way, yield our own will and let God be in command with His power working through us.
This heroic framework was working on me, helping me to grow stronger and more confident, long before it was ever written down. I felt these elements inside and believed they would motivate me. I knew I had to change. I knew a man who abandons his own selfish agenda, in exchange for God’s guidance could find purpose and strength far beyond whatever he had going on himself. You can read more on my personal history on the About page and woven throughout the different framework Codex descriptions. It is my individual back story and my journey to this new perspective I now have that has made me feel more empowered than I’d ever dreamed I could.
What now?
If you sense something is holding you back, or you find yourself acting in ways you don’t want to act, I recommend starting reading about Weakness, our vulnerability. If you feel a greater calling but fear you don’t know the way, or that you aren’t ready yet, check out The Quest. If you’re the type of person who would rather take in the whole picture, go ahead and start your assessment (or retake it).
The framework is free to take or retake any time. The collection of Codex entries for all ten forces are found at heroicjournal.com/framework. Start with the one that makes you uncomfortable. That’s a good clue there is work there you need to do. It is likely the right place to begin.