For the next three Mondays, we'll be exploring the Heroine's Journey as it relates to today's Accidental Pren-her. We'll be using Joseph Campbell's own research into the Hero's Journey as our model, adapting it specifically to a woman's journey as she travels from Accidental Pren-her to entrepreneurial women.
There are three stages to every Heroine's Journey. They are:
- Departure
- Initiation
- Return
Today, we'll focus on: DEPARTURE
The adventure begins when the heroine receives a call to action. The call to action, according to Campbell, usually comes when “a blunder — apparently the merest chance — reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood.” This activating event is often seen as a threat to the peace of the individual or the community. It is often brought on by another person, an outside event, or a spiritual occurrence.
If you are someone who has been downsized from the corporate world, has lost your job, or has quit simply because you’ve had enough of working for someone else, then this is your activating event. If your children have recently left home or you are newly divorced, this is also an activating event. Mine was a spiritual experience; what was yours? Maybe it was the death of a loved one. Perhaps you’ve come into some money, or maybe you’ve had a near-miss accident. Whatever event it was, it became your heralded call for change: A call to action.
Once the call is received, the heroine has a choice — to accept or decline. There is always that choice. No one is ever forced to go on a Heroine’s Journey. This is one of those times when the decision is a singular decision. It is up to you to decide if you are going to heed the call to action or not. If you say yes, your world will change. If you say no, it will still change, though in a different way. Campbell explains, “Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved.”
For those who are contemplating becoming a small business owner, this is the time when you decide if you will or will not venture forth. If you will or will not take your first steps toward entrepreneurship. Will you heed the call or become a victim to be saved? No matter what your decision, the fact remains, something unexpected has happened in your life that is shaping who you are and what you do today. You can’t go back. You can never go back to the time before the call. Will you go on?
Many of us don’t. However, the few who do are changed forever. The Heroine’s Journey shapes us, transforms us, and spits us out whole with a fire in our bellies and a deeper inner knowing than we’ve never had before — an Inner Samurai knowing.
Are you at the beginning of some great journey? Do you feel called to something yet unknown? Have you been at this spot before? If so, what is or was the departure like for you?
My call to action was a defining moment in 2000 when I had shared at a seminar that I was a rancher. A couple approached me at break time and said "You are living the American Dream". I paused, knowing what they meant, and also knowing for me it had become a nightmare of unending work and decision making that hadn't brought peace, happiness, contentment to the players involved. I thought to myself, there must be some other options. Eight years ago now and the "call to action" is still unfolding with more surprises and rewards than I could have ever imagined.
Thanks for asking! Pam
Posted by: Pam Peyron | February 23, 2008 at 07:57 PM
Don't you just love it, Pam, how a little shift of perspective can open up a whole 'nuther path for us? In your case, it was the couple who saw you as living the American Dream. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Posted by: The Original Accidental Pren-her | February 24, 2008 at 03:03 PM