The Hero's Journey

How To Embark On Your Own Journey As A Tool To Get What You Want

by Joshua Wayne, MA


(PEERtrainer note: at the end of this article is a link to a thread where we can all share our thoughts and responses to this article and idea. We get a lot of email from you all and a lot of them need to be shared with everyone. So please write down your thoughts on the thread!!)


Breaking Through The Weight Loss Glass Ceiling

I was traveling recently and had a couple hour layover in the Charlotte, NC airport.  Usually I do two things when I’m in an airport with time to spend waiting for a plane: eat some kind of Mexican food (it’s the usually the most reliably healthy option- you can’t go too wrong with black beans, salsa and fresh guacamole) and thumb through a bunch of magazines.  I’d like to say I’m the kind of a person who only reads magazines of taste and substance- but you wouldn’t likely completely buy that, would you?  For good reason- it wouldn’t be exactly true.  Before I get around to the likes of “Harpers” and “The Economist”, I’ve first gotten my fill of Sports Illustrated, Maxim and Rolling Stone.

I must have gotten caught up on A-Rod’s latest blood test results, the 8 must-do exercises for rock hard abs, and a review of Bob Dylan’s new album, because I found myself reading an interesting article in “Newsweek” (or was it “The Atlantic Monthly”- don’t remember) about the “glass ceiling” in American corporations.  It was talking about how in spite of Barack Obama’s election to office, many minorities and women still perceive that there is a very real glass ceiling in their companies that typically doesn’t allow them to rise above middle management positions.

It really got me thinking about the weight loss struggle that most of us go through, and how in many ways we bump into a “glass ceiling” as well- only this one is entirely of our own creation.  We usually know it too, but we still can’t figure out how to break through it.  We keep bumping our heads on this imaginary ceiling.

It’s like we keep getting snagged- like when you’re walking through a doorway and your shirt or jacket pocket gets snagged on the door handle (don’t you hate that?) and you get unpleasantly jerked back.  Only when it comes to weight loss, we get jerked back to the place where we began- and it leaves us feeling very frustrated and stuck. 

So how can we break through that glass ceiling once and for all?  How can we shatter it to tiny, miniscule, meaningless pieces- and even get to the point where we realize it was in our minds the whole time?  In other words, how can we break through out own barriers to finally have the results and happiness we desire?

What I’d like you to contemplate for a moment is that the way you’re going to break through this glass ceiling is by finding the “Hero Within”.  Not exactly the answer you were expecting?  Let me explain.

There was a great mythologist named Joseph Campbell who studied literally thousands and thousands of myths and great stories from all over the world.  (His work was one of the primary influences of George Lucas and Star Wars.)

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Campbell said that all of these stories were always about a heroic character who was fighting for truth or justice, or to find their passion and true purpose in life.

Campbell’s greatest contribution, though, was the realization that the tales of all the great heroes were ultimately just metaphors- metaphors for your life and mine.  He said that each of us is the hero on our own journey- a journey (and often a struggle) each of us is on to find our truth, our passion and to create what we really, really want in life.

Here’s always the catch though: in order for the hero- meaning you or I- to have the life we deeply desire, we inevitably come upon a threshold- a “glass ceiling” if you will.  Campbell calls this “The Threshold of Adventure” and in order to really claim the life we want, we have to get across it. 

This can be tricky, though, because in order to get across it we have to change.  To at least some extent, we have to leave behind what is comfortable and familiar.  Think about this a bit.  What is comfortable and familiar is exactly what has gotten us to exactly where we are today.  It’s not what is going to get us the new result we want. 

Campbell says that when every hero gets to his or her threshold of adventure it’s always scary, because what lies on the other side is the unknown.   The hero almost always experiences the desire to retreat, quit and seek comfort in what is more comfortable and familiar.

Think about this in terms of your struggle to lose weight and keep it off.  How many times have you tried to make changes, but you keep bumping into that same glass ceiling over and over again?  Maybe you do great for 3 or 4 weeks, but then you get stressed at work, lose your focus and go right back to your uncontrollable night snacking.  Maybe you do great for a few months, lose 15 or 20 pounds, but then for some inexplicable reason you just start sabotaging your success and find yourself back at square one.  You hit that darn glass ceiling again! 

In many ways, I think of the weight loss struggle as a classic Hero’s Journey scenario (and it’s one of the central ideas that week 12 of our program is built around). There is something you deeply, deeply want.  I know this, because you wouldn’t be reading this article if it wasn’t true.  Maybe you want your health back, or a sexy body and to start dating again; maybe you just want to feel ‘normal’ again and not constantly plagued by the fear that you’ll binge and eat all night.  Maybe you want to go home for the holidays and not be anxious about what your parents or siblings are thinking.

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Whatever it is, you wouldn’t be reading this if there wasn’t some major change you really wanted to make in terms of your body and health.  And yet, you keep bumping into that threshold.

So how does the hero finally get across this threshold?  In a word: Courage.  It requires the courage to change.  It requires the courage to fully commit to ourselves and our highest good; to commit to breaking out of this little jail cell we created.  It requires the courage to face our fears, “slay our dragons” and fight for what we want!  Your issues with food are the “battle” you must fight as the hero on your own journey.

So what is your battle?  What do you have to be brutally honest with yourself about and summon your inner courage to face?


Whatever keeps snagging you, I want you to know that I completely recognize that these old habits and beliefs you carry may be very intense and overwhelming.  Sometimes they’re so intense and pervasive that we just accept them as reality.

But I’m here to deliver this news: your fears and your limitations are not reality.  Perhaps you’ve heard this acronym for FEAR before: 

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real 


Chew on that for a moment.  Your fears and your limitations are just that- false beliefs you came to accept as reality.  The good news is that you have a tremendous opportunity available to you right now to break through your glass ceiling.

You CAN shed the limitations and challenges that have kept you stuck in the same rut with your weight loss for perhaps several years.  You have the ability to become a new person in many respects.

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Here are the real questions to be asking yourself:


There are of course many ways you can get there. We have been developing these themes in our various programs. In our coaching program, the idea of the Hero's Journey is one of the tools that we use to get people to "the point of no return." These are powerful tools that are embedded in human history. We help you become your own version of Luke Skywalker in a sense. Maybe think about a hero or heroine that you identify with and some to the program with that role model in mind.

We also introduce elements of this idea in our free Tip Of The Day coaching program. Regardless of the tools that you make use of on PEERtrainer, I would like you to take some time right now and think about this idea of The Hero's Journey. What are the dragons you want to slay? What is the journey you want to take? What are the elements of this?

And please write it down in this PEERtrainer Community Thread

And this is not just about weight loss. When you start to move in a slightly different direction you will find yourself getting physically stronger, mentally stronger. Ideally, your overall pereception of what you are capable in all aspects of your life will be blown wide open.

In closing, please understand this: the only thing that can hold you back is your unwillingness to grow and learn.  The only thing holding you back from stepping onto your Hero’s Journey is your own fear, limitation and procrastination. The truth is, you don’t even have to know every step involved in getting there- you just have to be willing to commit to that first step across the threshold.  It’s really something worth doing, because on the other side is that life you’ve been wanting for years- maybe even decades.

Voltaire wrote: “Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew.”

So, will you come meet us at the edge?  Life is short and time is precious, so please don’t delay.

I wish you all the best on your journey forward,

Joshua

PS- As always, I’d love your thought, feedback and insights on this article.  You can reach me at joshua (at) peertrainer (dot) com.



Joshua Wayne is a Personal Development Coach and Trainer who focuses on weight loss, fitness and optimal mind/body health.  He is the co-creator (with PEERtrainer co-founder Jackie Wicks) of the “Point of No Return” training program that helps people adopt the thinking and behaviors necessary to finally get “un-stuck” and overcome frustration and hopelessness in their weight loss efforts.