Published in Kingstown College Coaching Magazine 2019/2020
We are all heroes and we all have calls for adventure, needs for change, challenges to overcome, and goals to set.
Zelda di Blasi shows us that the familiar story of the Hero’s Journey which can be found everywhere from the Bible to video games, can be a useful framework for the coach and coachee to work within. It also provides opportunities for some more adventurous, thought provoking language as we seek to slay dragons and banish demons!
A Coaching Model
Clients often come to coaching looking for some form of change or direction, perhaps a career transition or improved performance in an area of their lives. As coaches we can use change theories or models to understand the process of change to help to create direction and structure, so that we can enable our clients to move through change in effective, positive and supportive ways. There are many coaching models that can help individuals in transition (e.g. GROW), as well as change theories (e.g. Lewin’s 3 Step Model, Prochaska and Diclemente’s Stages of Change model). A less common model but a potentially powerful one in coaching individuals and teams through change is the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell and the work of Jung who discovered that many legends, myths, stories, books and Disney movies are built on a basic pattern and structured in three stages where the hero goes on an adventure (the Departure), is challenged by enemies in approaching the innermost cave (the Adventure) and returns home transformed (the Return).
According to Joseph Campbell there are three possible life paths that we can take: (1) the village, (2) the wasteland; or (3) the journey.
The village represents the traditional life that has been mapped out by society and culture, where we do as we are told. We go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, buy a house, work, retire, and finally we die. If we follow this path, in theory we will feel secure, safe and satisfied. For some, this may be true, but for many others the village is, in Thoreau’s words: “a life of quiet desperation”.
The wasteland is the path of the rebel or outcast who reject the village, feeling cynical and negative, and attempts to numb these feelings with TV, drugs, alcohol, criminal activity or isolation.
The third path is that of the journey, where we follow our hearts, as we envision something more and are called to discover something new.
We can go through several hero’s journeys in our lives when we follow our bliss, and we find ourselves experiencing magical moments when the world opens up, as we connect with something greater and transformative. This is also known as the Eudaimonic or meaningful path to happiness, as its where we tend to cultivate our strengths, contribute to a greater good, realise our potential and find meaning in life. The Hero’s Journey is about taking this third path; the journey to find how to thrive by developing the skills to discover and travel your own path and live your own life as the best version of yourself. A hero’s journey is a path of self-development. We grow in order to develop the flexibility and competence we need to navigate new territory and overcome the obstacles that arise along the way.
I stumbled on upon this model when I discovered scientific evidence on the power of our names on our lives, including our career choices, whom we marry or where we live.
Shakespeare wrote: ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’, however, I am not sure I would be who I am today if I had been given another name, like Maria for example, which I was almost called. While my parents had agreed on Zelda, my Sicilian grandmother managed to persuade my father to register me in her own name, and this was later changed, and as a result, I never got a dowry from my grandmother, but I did get the name Zelda. Had I been called Maria, I don’t think I would have left Sicily, where I grew up at age fourteen, when I followed my heart and moved to Ireland to start a wonderful adventure. The name Zelda means ‘joy’ or ‘happiness’. My job is to teach, coach and research the Science of Happiness. My mother chose this name inspired by American writer and dancer Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of great novelist Scott Fitzgerald. Like Zelda Fitzgerald, I love to write and to dance.
Also inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, Japanese cartoonist Miyamoto called his action adventure game, the Legend of Zelda. Released in 1986, it has sold over 75 million copies and is one of the most popular and influential video games of all time. This video game was designed using the Hero’s Journey. Anthony Bean recently published a book entitled The Psychology of Zelda, tracing aspects of the Hero’s Journey.
The steps of the hero’s journey include: (1) The Departure (Hearing the Call); (2) the Adventure (Facing a Challenge); and (3) the Return (Transformation).
- The Departure:
Hearing a calling relates to our life purpose or mission. We may refuse or disregard the calling, but this often intensifies the problems, while committing to the calling leads us to confront a boundary or threshold in our map of the world.
‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’, said Mary Oliver. She explained the process of departure in her poem ‘the Journey’, where the hero stops listening to people around them and begins to recognise and listen to their inner voice, beginning their journey in order to save their life. In starting our journey, we cross the threshold which takes us into new unknown “territory”, outside our comfort zone; where we are forced to grow and evolve. This threshold is generally a “point of no return,” once we are across it, we cannot go back to the way things used to be.
- The Adventure:
We are designed for adventures. From a neuroscience perspective, our brain is designed to thrive on new experiences and on challenges that allow us to learn and grown. Flow states are triggered by challenges, and the brain floods with dopamine when it discovers something new.
Helen Keller, said: ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all’. Facing a challenge or a demon is also a natural result of crossing a threshold. A demon or a dragon is generally something that appears to oppose, tempt or negate us as heroes, they are not necessarily evil or bad; they are simply a type of “energy”, that we need to learn to contend with, accept and redirect. Often, demons or dragons are a reflection of one of our own inner fears and shadows. Here we confront “self-liting beliefs” such as: “You should not be here” or “You are not good enough”. Developing new resources is necessary in order to deal with uncertainty and transform the “dragon” or “demon.” These resources include increased self-awareness, the ability to flex into strength, softness and playfulness. Completing the task for which we have been called and finding the way to fulfil the calling is ultimately achieved by creating a new map of the world that incorporates the growth and discoveries brought about by the journey.
- The Return
The return involves the hero coming back to the village transformed and sharing with others the knowledge and experience gained from their journey. Coming back to the village, we share our story, having come full circle, but as a new person. Through challenges and discoveries along the path we acquire courage, insight, wisdom, resiliency and greater awareness of ourselves and the world. When we return to the village we are able to make our own unique contribution and become recognized and acknowledged for who we really are.
The journey is not always an external one. Sometimes we travel internally even as we stay within the physical context of the village. As a result of our growth, we bring new ideas and new life to the village, making it possible for more to thrive there.
The Hero’s Journey as a Coaching Tool
While a hero’s journey is a personal journey, it is not something that we can do alone. Coaching using the hero’s journey as a model, and especially when taking a positive psychology approach, can be very powerful in this journey. Several coaches have identified the hero’s journey as a tool or model for coaching, and provided useful resources.
To start with it is important to explain the concept of the hero’s journey to our clients, letting them see that they’re on a journey, perhaps drawing it on a piece of paper using their story so that they can pull back and see light at the end of the tunnel. Coaching sessions using this model can take place while walking outdoors in nature in order to embody the hero’s journey. In research conducted with Gas Networks Ireland, together with my colleagues, I found that coaching clients while walking outdoors was more energizing, increased levels of self-efficacy and positive emotions, and created a greater sense of connection with clients, compared with coaching conducted while sitting indoors.
As coaches, we can support our clients in preparing for their journey by asking open questions that can get our clients fired up, excited, and on purpose, for example by asking them: “What is your call to adventure?”. Open and powerful questions can help our clients plan the actions needed to get to their destination, and support them along the way to build skills, believing in themselves and staying focused on their objectives.
We can spend time analysing what areas need attention, what is not working and what is working, brainstorming on the possible solutions, thinking creatively in order to change perspectives and solutions, and to explore the unknown. Identifying underlying beliefs, procrastination, weaknesses, temptations and challenges, along with strengths, values, commitment, action, perspectives, skills and willpower, to help our clients to identify, face and transform their ‘dragons’ or their ‘demons’ – in other words their inner fears, shadows and self-limiting beliefs.
We can ask questions such as: “What can you do to slay your dragon?”, “What would happen if you slayed their dragon?”, “How would you feel?”, “Who would you be?”, “What would happen if you didn’t slay your dragon?”. The miracle question can be very powerful here, e.g. “”Suppose tonight, while you slept, a miracle occurred. When you awake tomorrow, what would be some of the things you would notice that would tell your dragon had been slayed?”.
Sometimes the return can be challenging, and might involve crossing another type of threshold, as the hero needs to reintegrate with life and key relationships. There can be a fear on our own part of getting stuck in our own previous existence, and there can be desire on the part of significant others for us to stay as we were before so that they don’t have to change in response to our movement and growth. In the final phase, when the hero returns home, it is important that the coach gently challenges the client to ensure that the conditions ahead will support the implementation of the changes. Useful questions might include: “Who/What can support you?”, “What will you put in place to ensure that you keep up with your decision?”, “Is there something in the way that might stop you?”, “What else could you do?”. These questions can help increase optimism, self-efficacy and resilience.
To conclude, we are all heroes and we all have calls for adventure, needs for change, challenges to overcome, and goals to set. In Mans’ Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl wrote: ‘between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom’. To this Bob Dylan adds: ‘A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with freedom’.
Considering that coaching is a “partnering with clients in thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential” (www.coachfederation.com), the Hero’s Journey can be a very effective way to creatively structure and inspire our clients as they change to become the best version of themselves. Whether at a crossroad and looking for direction, perhaps longing for a career change, for improved health or enhanced performance, coaching that is based around the Hero’s Journey can transform our clients, supporting and fuelling their passion and purpose.
By Zelda Di Blasi
Zelda Di Blasi, MPsychSc, PhD, is a graduate of the Kingstown College Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching, a certified HeartMath coach and Strengths Coach. She is the co-founder and director of a Masters in Positive and Coaching Psychology at University College Cork, where she lectures, coaches and conducts research. Zelda has a PhD from the University of York on the placebo effect and health care interactions, a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the University of California San Francisco and a Diploma in Modern Dance. She lives in Kinsale with her husband and her children Zoē and Joshua.
www.linkedin.com/in/zelda-di-blasi-b8b5944
E-mail: [email protected]
