How’s your hero’s journey going so far?

I covered phase 1, The Prologue, and phase 2, The Call to Adventure.
In this blog I’m talking about the next step in your voyage: Resistance.

In universal stories – in the oral tradition, in movies and real life – there’s often the moment where the hero(ine) refuses the call to a new life. At first the call to a new adventure seems so powerful and enticing, but when the alluring energy of a new beginning subsides, doubt and fear show up.

This resistance could be an inner feeling saying to you: ‘It is not safe to change’. That it isn’t the right time to leave your world and step into a new one.

The denial of change can also come from the external environment. That’s when friends, family or the community say you’re not ready to take on this new challenge.

Basically, what resistance does is leaving you in your comfort zone, where you perfectly know your way around. Because changing your environment and try something new is just too dangerous!

This is exactly what happens with our heroine Paikea in marvelous Whale Rider. We’ve been following her on her couragous path in the previous blog posts.

In this picture she manages to start the motor of a boat, which her opposing grandfather couldn’t do. Paikea is showing her skills and claiming the small success on her way to become the new leader of the community.

However, this is exactly the fear of her grandfather: a young woman who would lead a tribe that has always been led by men. So, in response to Paikea’s joy and excitement the grandfather shuts off the motor and says: ‘I don’t want you do that again. It’s dangerous!’

Naturally the metaphor here is the resistance to passing on the torch to the next generation.

I’d like to share one of my biggest challenges I experienced in my life. That was moving to Ecuador. This month I’ll celebrate my 5th anniversary in Ecuador, but OMG… Getting here and leaving things behind was really really tough. And this is an understatement, believe me…

I had serious doubts and fears. My mind started to make these crazy thoughts. What am I going to do over there? How can I close down my growing company at this point? And why to Ecuador and not to Bali, where my heart belongs?

In the first months my hobby was to compare everything in Ecuador to Bali. Nothing could compare to beautiful Bali, of course. My wife did the same thing too, though she was the catalyst for our move to Latin-America.

But after feeling my inner resistance for a while, I made the commitment to myself to open my heart for Ecuador. From that time on my view became more loving, more gentle. I started to embrace Spanish as my new language and was open to learn it. I opened myself to connect with the local Ecuadorians, showing interest and talking with them about life.

Now, I wholeheartedly can say moving to Ecuador was my best life decision – ever – by far. Moving through my emotions of resistance, acknowledging and letting them go gave me the wonderful opportunity for deep reflection and appreciation.

Apparently, I needed my resistance to grow and to show me a window into a new reality. One that is aligned with who I want to be.

Remember, sometimes saying ‘no’ to the call is good too, because you simply don’t need to change. But it can also mean though, that you need extra time to gain more (mental) stamina and prepare yourself. In this case it’s a temporary refusal.

What kind of resistance of change are you going through right now?

Share with me and leave you comment below!

Next time we’ll dive into  phase four of your Hero’s Journey: Meeting Your Mentor.

See you then!

From my heart to yours,
Kim Ho

P.S. Do you want to accelerate your Hero’s Journey? I’m offering a free mentoring call where we can explore your Journey. Click here to learn more and let’s start our conversation.