Did you know that many of our favorites movies and stories follow a similar cycle that's been used for millennials?
It starts with our beloved hero living a peaceful life,
A dire disruption happens in their life that shakes their current reality
With all the atrocities that are going on, they realize new knowledge and power needed to be available to them to deal with the challenge.
Our hero journeys on an adventure to gain this new knowledge and power.
On the way they find allies,
They gain new insights,
They get to experiment from trial and error with roadblocks along the way
They get mentored by a wisdom keeper that makes them look inwards.
Integrating all that they learned, our hero goes through a rebirth process where it transforms
who they are and their model of the world.
Once they are ready, they go back to meet their antagonist to slay the dragon's head.
Once they triumph, they cycle back to a peaceful life.
THE END
Whether its luke Skywalker from Star Wars, Simba from The Lion King, or Prince Hamlet from Hamlet, they go through a similar story cycle. This storyline is called the hero's journey.
What I find preciously unique with COVID-19 is that the whole humanity is going through a collective hero's journey that is blessing us with a collective reflection in the way we live, relate to one another, and the way we inhabit our planet. At a smaller scale, our communities, organizations, and each of us individually going through their own hero's journey. I believe many of us by now are at a place where they have realized that we are facing a disruption that has shaken the way we live, and we are becoming aware we need new knowledge and resources to meet the rising challenge calling us to step up. Your puzzle will be unique to you; maybe you are one of the people who have lost your job in the midst of it, you could be one of the leaders who are not sure how to lead their team in this ambiguous situation or the couple that is facing more tension in their relationship surprisingly from quarantining together.
So where do we go from here? First, be sure, like all our protagonists in the hero's journey, the stronger the challenge or emotional pain you are going through, the more potential your transformation journey carries. Getting stuck on anxiety and feeling helpless is a mindset that will not serve you. Second, envision the future of your hero's journey with COVID-19 by reflecting on powerful questions like these:
What is the gift that I am not seeing for me in this experience?
What is the current life disruption getting me ready for?
What allies I already have, or I need along the way?
What superpower have I been gifted with to face this?
What resources do I already have, which I can leverage?
Where do I get to experiment with my new learning?
If you would tell your hero's journey of COVID-19 to your kids or grandkids, what would you want to say to them?
Collective humanity experiences as this one are rare, make sure you take a path that would make a wonderful lesson for the generations to come.