Declaring Your Independence

The month of June has drawn to a close, and July is now before us.  It stretches out like a long bridge between the beginning of summer and the start of a new school year. 

In our journey of self-improvement, the month of July will be devoted to an exploration of fear, and how to overcome it in order to reach our goals.  We will take a look at the ways in which fear can become an obstacle we must surmount along the path to our authentic lives.  Fear can leave us feeling helpless or, even worse, hopeless in the face of such obstacles.

Fear can also be a powerful motivating force, however.  Nothing can galvanize human activity faster than the fear that something worse than our present challenge will happen if we fail to take action. 

Mastering your fear can be the most empowering experience you give yourself.  It is a bit like declaring your independence from those thoughts or behaviors you have outgrown.  Sometimes it can feel as though such outmoded beliefs or ways of being rule or control you, but this is an illusion.  When we choose to face down our fears and overcome our fearful illusions, we become the heroes of our own lives. 

In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces , Joseph Campbell describes what he calls the Hero's Journey.  He points out that, throughout history, heroes have been ordinary human beings who answered the call to extraordinary circumstances and experiences.  They heeded the call when others did not, and we are all the better for it. 

A hero's journey does not end, however, with his willingness simply to answer the call.  Something more is required of a true hero than that.  The hero's journey will take him to the place he most fears to go, and there he must face his most fearsome foe -- himself.  And by doing so, the hero becomes a stronger, braver, and more compassionate human being. 

All of us share this challenge, for we are all the heroes of our own journey.  The paradox is that the challenge comes for every hero in the place of his/her weakness.  The inner knowledge that we must face our worst fear in the place of our greatest weakness is the thing that keeps many of us from ever reaching our full potential. 

All is not lost, however.  Joseph Campbell reminds us, "It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  Where you stumble, there lies your treasure."  This means that the area of our greatest personal fear is also the place of our greatest reward, and no hero can move on to the next level without first overcoming this challenge. 

In The Wizard of OZ by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy cannot return to her home until she faces her fear of the 'Wicked Witch of the West' and subdues her.  In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge cannot commit to being a decent human being until he faces the fear of his own mortality. 

What is your greatest fear?  What is the thing you believe is standing between you and the life you want to live?  No matter the perceived size of the obstacle in your path, one thing is certain:  you will not be able to make the progress you desire or have the success you dream about unless and until you face your fear and master it. 

For the month of July, let us take this part of the journey together.  Over the next 31 days, let's take a realistic look at what is holding us back from being the hero of our own story.  Let's declare our independence from any fear we have allowed to hold sway over the better angels of our nature.  By taking this step together, we lose the excuse that our obstacle (whatever it is) is too big to overcome, for the road feels much smoother when we have a good companion for the journey.  As A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh is fond of saying, "It is much friendlier with two." 

And don't worry that the task seems impossible right now.  "Follow your bliss," Joseph Campbell says, "and the Universe will open doors where there were only walls."