We’re going on a lion hunt, 
We’re not afraid! 
Got my canteen by my side, 
And my binoculars too.

— American Children’s Song

Our physical lives are journeys.  We know how they begin.  We know how they will end. It is our job to fill in the middle.

Sadly, many of us don’t do such a great job of filling. We get by. We drift along. We muddle through. And before we know it, some serious time has passed us by.

The cure for muddling is the hero’s journey.

From the beginning of recorded time, through the Greek and Roman epics, to the present day, art and music and literature have memorialized the fundamental necessity of the hero’s journey to the fullness of our humanity.

Joseph Campbell, in his seminal masterpiece The Hero With A Thousand Faces, summarized the hero’s journey like this:  “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.”

All of us are called to the hero’s journey.

But it’s not conducted on the couch.

To figure out what life is really all about, you need to venture forth, see the world, get slapped upside the head, test your meddle, travel the edge, engage the battle, come back victorious. Then you will know a thing or two.  Then you can be of service to the world.

This requires effort.  This requires that you do something.

This requires a desire to know your heart.

This requires that you set out and seek your dreams.

“To realize one’s Personal Legend [your blessing, your path, your dream] is a person’s only obligation,” Paulo Coelho writes in his enduring story The Alchemist. “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”

All of us have hearts that yearn. All of us have souls that seek. All of us are called to quest. The restlessness that resides within us is part of our DNA.

But, here’s the problem: a lot of folks ignore (or refuse) the invitation to take the hero’s journey. They’d rather stay home. They’d rather stay safe, sound, and secure. They’d rather not risk. They’d rather not dare.

They were told at a tender age not to venture out, that the quest was impossible, that their dreams were not practical, that they could not succeed.

Fear may hold them back as well: Fear of failure, fear of suffering, fear of defeat.

Perhaps fear of success too. Success might require moving beyond a comfort zone, out of a job, a home, a relationship, into the unknown, into scary places, into places that confront and challenge in unexpected ways.

There’s also that pseudo sense of duty: folks tell themselves that they have “responsibilities.”  They say, “I can’t go now. Maybe someday.” This “version” of duty is camouflage for fear.

So quest we must. We cannot hide. To live lives that matter, we must venture forth. We must seek out the places that scare us. We must risk. We must dare. We must know sadness and grief. We must experience ecstasy and joy. We must taste victory. We must know defeat.

Coelho writes that when we have the courage to travel the intricate path of our Personal Legend, when “we learn to trust our hearts, read the seemingly inconspicuous signs, and understand that as we look to fulfill a dream, it looks to find us just the same, if we let it.”

It is only in the journey that we find our dreams.