A Joseph Campbell Companion

Those three words capture a key message of Joseph Campbell—the amazing mythology guru and mentor to George Lucas who based much of Star Wars on the classic archetypal journeys Campbell documented.

It’s rather simple.

Three words: 1. Follow. 2. Your. 3. Bliss.

Key words: “bliss” and “your.”

Not someone else’s idea of your bliss. Not what you think should be your bliss. Not what you think would impress the crowd or appease the family.

Your BLISS. What truly gets you giddy.

Oh yah, “follow” is kinda important as well. Get off your butt and go out there and follow your bliss!

(Pretty please. Thank you.)

How funny is it that we get stressed because we don’t know exactly how everything is going to turn out?

Um…

Can you imagine a life where everything goes exactly as planned?

It’s pretty much called “Groundhog Day.”

Not so good.

Let’s embrace the unknown and celebrate the excitement it generates!

(Soul) Phone rings.

It’s God on the other line.

You just let it ring… and ring… and ring…

Not good.

You stagnate.

All that potential positive energy you would have unleashed on your hero’s journey?

It comes back against you. And destroys you.

Eek.

…

Jesus said the same thing, btw: “If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is inside you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.”

That pretty much sums it up.

Are you following someone else’s path? If so, you simply aren’t going to realize your potential.

Yes, we know that society does anything but encourage us to discover who we are and how to go out and give ourselves to the world. But that’s why they call it the “hero’s” journey. If it wasn’t a challenge it’d be something like “the average person’s” journey. Not so inspiring.

Engage in your hero’s journey! Find your own way.

“The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”

Nietzsche made a brilliant comment on this as well: “Shedding one’s skin. The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be spirit.”

We MUST shed our old selves to transform into the new.

How’s your skin?

Need to shed a bit, my friend?

…

And, while we’re on the subject of death and re-birth, how about this:

That. Is. Powerful.

As we just learned, a snake that cannot shed its skin perishes.

The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

And, if you want resurrection, you must have crucifixion.

QUIT HOLDING ON TO YOUR OLD IDENTITY.

As Campbell says: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

Now a good time for a little change? :)

I love that.

Why do we have this silly notion that we can transform our lives without some challenges?

Makes NO sense.

You break any eggs lately?

Quit tip-toeing and go for it.

In fact: Jump!

The hallmark of the advanced soul is a healthy relationship to fear.

As we grow, we develop a deeper and deeper trust in that force that beats our hearts and grows our fingernails and, miraculously, seems to make those chasms not quite as wide the moment we jump.

Emerson tells us “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” And pleads with us: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.” And assures us: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

What about this classic from Everest-climbing mountaineer, W.H. Murray?

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!””

…

Are you at a chasm?

Jump.

It’s not as wide as you think.

Love that. Say “yes” right now.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Feel that? Good.

Now say, “No.”

“No, no, no, no, no!”

Feel the difference?

If you’re like me, “Yes!” has a light, fun energy and “No” has a heavier, closing-in energy.

Open up to ALL of life. The ups, the downs, the opportunities to let your soul shine.

Say “Yes!”

Wow. That’s worth a re-read (or four).

I don’t know about you, but “the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage” have been the incidents that have shaped the life I have now.

Where to begin?

How about when I dropped out of law school after a semester at 23? Oh. And I ended a 5-year relationship in the same week. I was spinning for months. Moved back in to my mom’s house to her great delight. (Um. Not so much.)

At the time, I simply couldn’t figure out how I was possibly going to create a life within what I saw as very limited options. I like to say that I felt a bit like a fire hydrant with all this energy but there was this glass wall 6 inches in front of me—bouncing the water right back on my face and nearly drowning me. Entertained way too many different creative ways I could end it all.

Eek.

Here’s the interesting part: the ONLY thing I knew I wanted to do when I dropped out of law school was to coach a Little League Baseball® team. (Well, first I burned my resume…) So, that’s what I did. I volunteered to help a neighbor friend coach his son’s 9 and 10 year-old team, the Angels.

We were the Bad News Bears. I think we lost our first 5 games. But I learned something. I learned that the quality of a kid’s experience in youth sports was shaped, in part, by the quality of the coaching he received. My neighbor friend and I had no idea what we were doing and it showed—not just in the standings but in the morale of the team.

Before law school, I was a consultant with Arthur Andersen and learned a few things about technology and databases. And, I had an idea: what if I could create an online system (the web was in its toddler stage at that point in early 1998) that could bring these teams and leagues online and create a community where new coaches like me could learn how to run a practice from the expert coaches (you know, the ones with the headbands and clipboards who kick everyone’s butts!)? And wouldn’t it be cool if I could make it easy to put a picture of Johnny sliding into home that his grandparents could check out if they missed the game?

Out of this idea, I created my first company: eteamz.com. My genius 22 year-old partner and I (I was 24 then) cracked open our piggy banks, invested $5k each and, from our living rooms, within 8 months we built a suite of tools that served thousands of teams from around the world. We won the business plan competition at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, raised $1m from angel investors, grew from 2 ½ employees to 45 in less than a year, raised another $4m+, hired the CEO of Adidas to replace me as the CEO (we also hired the eventual winner of the Apprentice II), and then saw the market bottom out in 2000.

That’s when I first REALLY got into self-development. A woman who worked for me said I would love Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior. I read it. It lived up to its sub-title A book that changes lives.

Long story a little shorter: we wound up selling eteamz (it now profitably serves 3 million teams and Little League Baseball uses the technology we built). I got enough cash to take a few years off to figure out what I’m here to do. I became a philosopher, immersed myself in the universal truths, became friends with Dan Millman, created my next business Zaadz, sold that and here we are.

Guess what?

It all started because I followed what TINY bliss I felt at the darkest point in my life. I followed that little voice within that said, “You don’t want to be a lawyer. It’s time to leave this path. You’d dig coaching kids. Do that while you figure everything out.”

And, out of the wreckage, I learned to trust the words of another favorite teacher, Wayne Dyer, who tells us: “In my world, nothing ever goes wrong.”

As Nietzsche says: “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.”

I say we learn to love our fate.

As Campbell says: “Whatever the hell happens, say, ‘This is what I need.’”

And, most importantly, follow your bliss.

That’s hot. (No pun intended.)

We’re way too timid in life.

And that includes our spiritual development.

Is your hair on fire?

Or, are you afraid of looking “too intense” and freaking out your friends and family?

I say we get over that. Life’s a little too short to worry about what other people think. (And, as Tim Ferriss says, don’t worry—they don’t think that often anyway. :)

And, remember: The only people who are going to give you a hard time for being “too intense” are the ones who aren’t living very fully. Guarantee you that.

* hands match box over *

Time to light our hair on fire, my friend.