When we think about our heroes it’s easy and natural to refer to our service men and women, humanitarian campaigners or even the classic comic book legends. The interesting thing about these reference points for heroes is that they are so often ‘external’ to ourselves – that is, we always think of somebody else!

However, we know that the hero’s journey, as described by Joseph Campbell, is a distinctly human experience that is achievable for everyone – but only if we have the courage to choose it.

What is the hero’s journey?

The hero’s journey sees us taking the road less travelled, where we say no to both the benign safety of the ‘expected’ life mapped out for us by society and culture, as well as denying the path of rebellion where we exist on the fringe of what is considered normal and appropriate in our community. One choice is safe, the other is usually destructive to ourselves and our loved ones – but neither allows us to live with vision, courage and service to others.

The third choice is the road less travelled, the hero’s journey, and we follow our hearts. We go our own way, adventure on our own unique path and face our fears head on in service to a goal that’s bigger than us. This is the path of all great leaders, entrepreneurs and pioneers in their fields. And it’s not for the faint-hearted.

It might look like choosing to leave a ‘safe’ job to start your own business, or to straighten out our life and maybe overcome unhelpful addictions so that we can contribute to others, or it might mean following creative, heart-based pursuits even if there’s no likelihood of earning a decent dollar by doing so.

What does it mean to be leaders in our lives?

When we choose to be leaders in our life, business or family – rather than simply allowing life to happen to us as passive receptacles of other’s expectations – we are choosing the experience of the hero’s journey.

It requires more personal growth than any other choice. It demands courage, insight, wisdom, resilience and contribution to something bigger than ourselves. It’s a journey of discovering who we really are, of massive internal transformation which changes us in such a way that we can never return to who we were before. Indeed, the very process of facing our fears transforms us to the ‘next level’ of living, working and being.

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

 Joseph Campbell

I believe we all experience the whispers of the hero’s journey – callings if you like, to step up and follow our dream. It’s just that some of us can’t hear those messages because we allow them to be drowned out by the expectations of others, or we choose not to listen to them because we are afraid.

The thing that differentiates leaders from everyone else is the choice to listen to and follow those whispers because the rewards outweigh the numbing sense of safety in staying put where we are, even (and especially) when it seems risky and frightening.

Leaders choose to step forward into the unknown, to navigate uncertainty, face challenges and seek the right guidance along the way.

So, which path do you choose?

My question to you is: Will you choose to be the hero of your own life?

When will you decide to say ‘no’ to the expected, safe and predictable in favour of following your intuition, your heart and your dreams?

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Steve Jobs

If you’ve already made these choices, you’ll know that the journey transforms you in undeniable and undoable ways. And if you’re hearing the whispers, but still haven’t decided to step forward into your leadership journey, then what or who are you waiting for?

If you’re thinking of taking the road less travelled, of being a leader in your life, my message to you is simple: you have the power to choose.

I’d love to hear your story.

Before you read this, it’s my duty to issue you with a stern warning.

If you read this article, you might decide to quit your job.

So… consider yourself warned, ok? Now read on, if you dare.

It’s the end of the year and a time of reflection. Some of us will feel lucky to have made it through the past 12 months intact, while others might be riding high on the buzz of achievement. Which one are you?

My question to you is: If you didn’t achieve what you wanted last year, well… just how long are you going to wait?

There are two problems to overcome when we know we’re not fulfilling our potential at work. The first is knowing when it’s time to make a break, and the second is gathering the confidence to do so.

Here are five signs that it’s time to move on.

1. Our job is eating our soul.

To the sufferers, this one will barely require explanation. When our job is eating our soul, the feeling is both palpable and unmistakable. Instead of going to work to expand, live large and fulfil our potential, we feel a sensation of ‘shrinking’ back into ourselves. Perhaps we put walls up to repel the effects of a bad organisational culture, or maybe it’s that sensation of work reducing us to a shell of our former selves. In any case, when work is eating our soul it’s time to pack our bags.

2. Our leadership is being squashed.

You know the feeling. Whenever we step up in leadership, we get squashed – put back in our box and knocked back down to our lowly rung on the corporate ladder. Our ideas fall on deaf ears, other leaders take credit for our work, nothing gets implemented because nobody can make decisions and we’re constantly told all the reasons why change can’t happen. If we’re ready to lead positive change but our organisational environment doesn’t allow it, then we owe it to ourselves to find one that does. It’s time to move forward and shine.

3. It’s a psychologically unhealthy workplace.

When going to work makes us constantly sad, angry, depressed, anxious or stressed, it’s time to get out. Psychologically unhealthy workplaces are ones where we don’t feel safe to uphold our standards, speak our mind, offer our best contributions and make an impact. It could be a workplace bully who is not being managed, poor leadership behaviours allowed to run riot or a culture of putdowns being acceptable. Do we really need to hit rock bottom before we decide to make a change? We only live once. How many more days will we spend compromising our psychological health?

4. It’s affecting our physical health.

When work is annihilating our physical health it’s time to seriously consider our options. A few years ago, it was ‘normal’ to see my physiotherapist at least once a week for a ‘frozen shoulder’. I thought it was from computer use – but now, I know it had nothing to do with keyboarding and everything to do with an unhealthy organisational culture impacting stress and manifesting pain in my body. These days, I regularly pull 16-hour days for the love of it without a single symptom – and I haven’t seen my physio for years. (She says she misses me.) For others, it might be weight gain or loss, headaches, migraines, stomach upsets, back pain or anything else. The question we must ask yourself is this: If we loved our job in a healthy environment, how would we feel? Now, go feel better.

5. It’s time to back ourselves.

I hear grumbling that job availability in the region is poor, that jobs are to be cherished because they are hard to come by… blah, blah, blah. Frankly, I call BS on that whole defensive strategy. Argue and defend your right to stay miserable if you must, but hear this. For those of us running the self-defeating strategy of staying ‘comfortable’ in an organisational cesspit because ‘jobs are hard to come by’, it’s time to stop hiding from our potential and take back our power. Know that our skills are hugely valuable – to other employers, or maybe in our own business. And that kind of certainty doesn’t come from external sources like job market statistics. Nope, it’s an inside job. It’s our inside job.

So, how do we gather the confidence to make a bold change?

First, we must become present – that means not engaging in distractions which allow us to forget that we’re not living our highest purpose. We move away from pain quicker than we move toward pleasure – so if we’re ready to make a change, feeling the pain is the first step. Next, get clear on our success strategy which will be a combination of recognising what’s worked for us in the past and then leveraging those strengths. Finally, access your internal certainty. This is not a ‘doing’ thing – we can’t do more access certainty – instead, it’s a way of being.

If you need help with accessing the presence and certainty you need to make bold career choices, I can be found drinking cappuccinos with my laptop across the Fraser Coast’s coffee shops and beachside locations. Come and say hello!

This week, my horse Big Red has reminded me about what it takes to be a leader, not a rescuer… Let me explain.  

Right now I’m working towards a very challenging but worthy goal with Big Red – to learn a particularly important horsemanship skill which will help us to achieve our goal of becoming safer on our trail rides together. Anyone who’s ridden a horse through challenging terrain will know that having a steady horse can, quite literally and without exaggeration, be a matter of life and death. So, it’s rather important that we get this right.

Just like when we’re guiding our teams through rough, uncharted waters towards an important business goal, on Day 3 of Big Red’s learning journey, we’re experiencing some expected challenges. And let’s face it, as is so often the case with teams, it’s not the component skills I need to teach, as he already understands all the “bits” he needs to pull it together. Rather, as a leader I need to create the conditions for his own breakthrough insights to occur, so that he can integrate everything he’s learned to execute this unfamiliar and challenging move.

Now, I must admit that there have been various points in the process where it’s been tempting to rescue Big Red from the struggle and discomfort of learning.

As with leadership and teams, and even when raising kids, when the going gets tough it can be tempting to want to stop the discomfort and just create a quick fix – which we know won’t produce sustainable results in the long term. It’s at this moment we must ask ourselves: “Am I a leader or a rescuer, today?” Read more