Your path to success with money may be straightforward, or it could require a heroic effort.
In his famous book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell laid out the Hero’s Journey:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
This narrative pattern has been used to tell countless stories, and it can tell yours as well.
Perhaps yours will be a journey out of debt, and or a journey of amassing a fortune. That’s up to you. My goal is to help you understand the stages of the Hero’s Journey so you can embrace it.
As a financial advisor, I’ve been helping people on their path to success with money for over 20 years. I’m honored to be named to Investopedia’s list of the top 100 financial advisors many years running.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- The ordinary world
- Your call to adventure
- The initiation
- The innermost cave
- Your return
- The final chapter
Let’s get started.
The ordinary world
You’re living your life. You’re doing what you’ve always done, and getting what you’ve always gotten. This is what we’re all doing. We follow predictable patterns of behavior, and have our habits for doing what needs to get done.
Is this bad? Not necessarily. If your life is exactly as you want it, you may not need to embark on any journey. You just need to keep everything moving along. But if you’re not where you want to be, and changes are required, you’ll get a call to adventure.
Your call to adventure
Maybe something happens to you. Perhaps your car breaks down or your water heater blows up. Maybe someone you know got hurt, or worse. Or maybe you simply listened to a podcast and the lightbulb turned on.
The call to adventure is a recognition that change is required. That your current path or circumstance is no longer tenable. Like a splash of cold water to the face, you realize what you’re doing will not get you where you want to go.
You take a deep breath, and your initiation begins.
The initiation
It begins with recognition. Perhaps you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, overspending on lifestyle, drowning in credit card debt, or just not paying attention to your personal finances. Whatever the thing is, you recognize it’s a problem and you call it out.
The first step will be a recognition of the symptoms of an underlying problem. That’s the starting point. It’s you saying to yourself, “I’ve got a problem that needs to be addressed.” From there, it’s time to go deeper.
The innermost cave
In the innermost cave, you’ll come face-to-face with your central crisis and overcome the main obstacle. This will be hard. This is where you’ll get to the heart of your problem, which is deeper than the symptoms you initially recognized like living paycheck-to-paycheck, credit card debt, and feeling anxious about money.
This is the moment you decide to take ownership and personal responsibility for your finances. It’s when you say, “I’m not going to continue on like this anymore.”
In the innermost cave, you confront your limiting beliefs about money. When you take them head on, you can work to change and replace them with beliefs that serve you. You’ll be able to redefine and align your values to your new beliefs.
Doing that will put you in position to set your goals and create habits which will help you create a compelling vision for your future. In the innermost cave, you’ll find your reward of hope, which will turn to confidence, which will lead you to peace of mind. It will set you on the path to financial prosperity.
To help you confront yours, read this post, and access our Goals and Values Courses at no cost.
Your return
Armed with a compelling vision for your future and a plan for bringing it to live, the real world beckons. Old habits, patterns, and friends call out to you, inviting you to slip back into your old ways. Temptation abounds. Comfort is appealing. Change is hard.
This is where you must double down on your commitment to the compelling future you envision. As you stay your course, you’ll get stronger, your confidence grows, and you’ve transformed yourself. You step fully into the role of hero of your journey.
The final chapter
In the final chapter, the hero “bestows boons” on others. Put another way, you share your newfound knowledge with others.
Even if you take no action, you’ll still be providing a shining example that it’s possible to overcome the seemingly insurmountable financial problems that plague so many.
Closing
Once you’ve completed your hero’s journey and you’re back in the real world, it’s time to step into your life and to start living it on your terms. It’s time to start pursuing financial prosperity.
If you’re ready to take control of your financial life, check out our DIY Financial Plan course.
We’ve got three free courses as well: Our Goals Course, Values Course, and our Get Out of Debt course.
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