The reality-adjustment wisdom I needed to hear
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Source: Medium
Author: Thomas Oppong
Joseph Campbell, author of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, made an uncomfortable observation that keeps me thinking. He said, “If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.”
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path,” he notes.
I read it. I paused. I felt uncomfortable.
The discomfort I felt said it all.
Everyone wants a clear path to feel safe and certain. But Campbell thought clarity can be a trap. Life is supposed to be uniquely yours. A clear path might mean you’re following someone else’s blueprint.
Their goals. Their fears. Not yours.
“You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential,” he wrote in The Power of Myth.
That realization is haunting.
It forces you to ask hard questions. Whose life am I really living?
Campbell, known for his work on mythology, believed life is a personal adventure. He called it “the hero’s journey.”Heroes step into the unknown. They leave comfort behind. They face trials, confusion, and inner chaos.
That’s how they transform.
That’s how they find their true self.
“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else,” he says.
An already-made path, a category, a box or whatever you call it, can rob you of your true north. The last time I tried certainty ( over ten years ago), I felt like I would lose my curiosity. So I rejected the offer. I thought I needed certainty and ready-made answers.
I thought clarity meant I was on the right track.
But that was a lie.
Certainty felt like I was going to lose a part of me. Getting back to my path felt good, but it was terrifying. It forced me to think and figure things out.
Campbell’s quote made me rethink the meaning of a good life. These days, I aim to take paths that make me come alive. Psychologist Carl Jung calls it “individuation:” a process of becoming your true self.
He said most people avoid it because it’s painful. Stepping off the clear path takes a lot of courage. The fear of the unknown will test you. You will feel lost. You will want to turn back. But the more you walk into the unknown, the clearer your inner compass becomes.
You don’t follow; you lead yourself.
Jung also said individuation is the only path to wholeness. Courage forces you to face yourself and step into your own life.
Philosopher and author of Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl, wrote about finding meaning in suffering. He believed meaning isn’t handed to you. You discover it in the struggle to design your life. You create it in the unknown. “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” he said.
The world rewards clarity and categorization.
But it comes at a cost. You have to sacrifice your true north. It costs you your uniqueness. Your self-discovery. Yourchance to create something real. If fitting in doesn’t make you come alive, you have the right to explore and create your path.
That’s where the magic happens, I’ve found.
But it’s not for everyone. It might scare people. It might scare you. I explore and follow my curiosity to know what feels right. Clarity has never been the goal for me. Growth is. Safety isn’t necessarily fulfilment.
Sometimes it’s stagnation.
What scares you but also excites you is key to figuring out your true north.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
Campbell’s quote isn’t just advice.
It’s a challenge. He dares you to face the unknown. To create your own path. To stop living someone else’s life. He encourages us to change how we live. The discomfort is not the enemy. It’s not easy. But it’s worth it.
The path I’ve chosen is not safe, but it’s mine.
That’s the path worth taking.
Your path should scare you. It should also excite you. It should feel uncertain but alive. Campbell explained it perfectly in “The Power of Myth”: “The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”
It doesn’t mean rejecting help, advice or wisdom from others. No one can tell you exactly what your life should look like.You alone know what your true north should look like. You alone can find yourself over and over again.
Your life is your myth. You are the hero.
Campbell says every hero must face uncertainty, chaos, and fear. But through that, they find freedom. Create your path with every move you make. That’s why it’s yours.
Source: Medium
Author: Thomas Oppong
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