authoring a hero’s journey finding meaning through story

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and

discover the treasure of their true selves – Carol Pearson

Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus (1490-1557)

we mold memories about the past and shape daydreams about

the future into archplots to give them vivid shape

life is normal, predictable

then the hero wants something (aka object of

desire)

life is normal, predictable

be a presenter

leading to the dragon gap between current &

desired reality

current reality future reality

here be dragons

the hero sets out on a journey

current manner of being | doing

new manner of being | doing

experiencing progressively greater risks

at times things will REALLY suck

what should I talk about? how can I get an abstract

accepted?

OMG, I’m committed… does anyone really care

what I think?

will I choke?

simplified hero’s journey modified from Kathy Sierra’s Where there’s passion, there are stories

creating meaningful change as they overcome each

obstacle

face pain of rejection, risk of

acceptance

quit/don’t quit

naked/not naked

never presented, ok with that

I’m a presenter

once they succeed in crossing the dragon gap, they

achieve a new normal (at least until the next stage of the journey)

I’m a presenter life is normal, predictable once again

why risk it? (who in their right mind wants to face dragons)

Frequently, in the life of a priest, fifty years' experience is one year's experience repeated fifty

times. You get the same solutions to fall back on... Wisdom is to be sensitive to this situation,

to this person, uninfluenced by any carryover from the past, without residue from the

experience of the past. – Anthony de Mello, Awareness

life is normal, predictable

we each, in our own way, want to make a

difference finding meaning in the story that is our life

any serious creative requires serious meditation of death @gapingvoid

The Top 5 Regrets People Have on their Deathbed

If only I’d had the

courage to fulfill my

dreams, living a life

true to myself, not the

life others expected of

me

If only I hadn’t

worked so

hard, stuck on

a treadmill

If only I’d had the courage to express my feelings

Meanest Indian, flickr

If only I’d stayed in touch with my friends,

spending more time with the people I love Kash_if, flickr

If only I’d let myself be happier,

laughing properly,

allowing silliness

If only. Those must be the two saddest words

in the world. – Mercedes Lackey

« le marchand de la mort est mort »

When his brother died, a French newspaper mistakenly ran an

obituary of Alfred Noble referring to him as the merchant of

death. A pacifist at heart, he didn’t want to be remembered as

the merchant of death. He wrote himself a new obituary by

creating the Nobel Prizes.

why wait until

you’re dying?

What do you want your life

to represent?

How do you want to be

remembered?

One day I sat down and wrote two versions of my obituary. The first was the one that I wanted to have. I thought

of the obituaries that I enjoyed reading, the people that I admired. They were the adventurers and risk-takers…

They lived life with a greediness for new experiences, and gumption, and a gung-ho attitude that defied the attempts

of naysayers and nigglers to pigeonhole them or put them down. These people really knew how to live. The second

version was the obituary that I was heading for – a conventional, ordinary life – pleasant and with its moments of

excitement, but always within the safe confines of normality. – Roz Savage

a hero is driven by a controlling idea that shapes the meaning of their story

it’s not your job title or job description that’s

gets you moving

current reality future reality

unless something compels us, we’re not

going to risk the dragon gap

controlling idea a single sentence describing how and why life undergoes

change from one condition of existence at the beginning

to another at the end

purpose enables us to overcome fear, conquer

dragons, and persevere despite the naysayers

WHY

WHAT

HOW

chicken picker

blackjack dealer

night desk clerk

program manager

legislative assistant

technical writer

usability specialist

product designer

manager

director How great leaders inspire action, Simon Sinek

a job title is one aspect of WHAT you do

WHY

WHAT

HOW

a job description is (sort of) HOW you do it

research

facilitate

listen

design

write

explore

teach

tell stories

discover stories

WHY

WHAT

HOW

WHY do you do it? WHY are you here? WHY do

you get out of bed every morning? WHY should

anybody care?

bring more empathy,

emotion and design

into a world dominated

by rational machine

thinking, helping to free

inner designers, artists,

and storytellers

WHY

rider

elephant

purpose gets your elephant moving

our emotional brain (95%)

our rational brain (5%)

inspires

provides meaning

shapes strategic choices

sparks imagination

focuses

allows for emergence

controlling idea dream

purpose

And of course, it was then, and only then, that

the outside world started paying attention. @gapingvoid

because purpose attracts

Tatters:) flickr

Write your obituary based on how you are living your life right

now, assuming no risk.

Give your inner critic a time out. Answer the question “What

would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?” What do you want people

to remember or do as a result of your life story? Write a

second obituary assuming you are living that life.

find your purpose

even with purpose, it can be hard to get your

hero moving that’s where an inciting incident comes in

throw out back 3rd time in 3 months

I have a bad back

2 pager on sun salutations in Canadian

Living

What does it mean to be fit?

I am fit

a turning point revealing the

need to change

Scott Hudson, flickr

something happens to get you moving

cog in the machine

not a key employee

boss from hell

Always. Everyone. Everywhere.

What does it mean to make something customers would

love?

designer of experiences

yearning to travel

no time, money, family obligations… no travel

hey, free Mandarin lessons

What does it mean to experience another

culture?

explorer seeking experiences to learn to see

set a trigger

book a date

say yes

announce it

jump in the deep end

incite yourself

beware the resistance whispering (shouting) in your hero’s ear

fear of dragons kicks your lizard brain into high gear

a hero develops a growth mindset

I

I determine my world. I am responsible

for me. I can choose.

I statements allow me to be in control,

put the focus on my awareness, make me

independent, assume my ability to choose jimmyharris flickr

a hero plays with assumptions nattu flickr

a hero acts

if you let your lizard brain have it’s way, you convert

yourself from hero into victim needing saving

Lel4nd flickr

Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its

negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or "culture," the

subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and

becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a

wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless.

– Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

they

The world happens to me. They are

responsible for... They prevent me from…

They statements assume power is in them,

put the focus outside myself, make me

dependent, assume my subordinance

.

a victim has a fixed mindset

a victim is chained by their assumptions

a victim reacts

Editors are not the enemy; critics are not the

enemy. Resistance is the enemy. The battle is

inside our own heads. – Steven Pressfield, War of Art

Put this program into action, a thousand times:

a) identify the negative feelings in you;

b) understand that they are in you, not in the

world, not in external reality;

c) do not see them as an essential part of "I";

these things come and go;

d) understand that when you change, everything

changes.

– Anthony de Mello, Awareness

a hero’s quest is NOT a neatly plotted plan

by this point

in your life,

you

should…

I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because

our lives are largely plotless, even when you

add in all our reasonable precautions and

careful planning; and second, because I believe

plotting and the spontaneity of real creation

aren't compatible. A strong enough situation

renders the whole question of plot moot. – Stephen King

controlling idea

A B

predictable future

step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5

clear present

seanmcgrath, flickr

planning assumes a predictable future based on past experiences a capacity for prediction we don’t possess

life is messy

A ?

?

?

?

?

?

unexpected obstacles will appear

assumptions may be wrong final destination is unclear

the hero learns, grows, and changes along

their journey, altering both the journey and

the final destination

since you can’t predict the future, you need to

prototype, play, experiment to learn

B

A fuzzy goal

Gamestorming, Dave Gray

unpredictable future

the only way I can get anything

written at all is to write really, really

shitty first drafts – Anne Lamott

B

A

shitty first drafts

future story (obit)

great stories aren’t written according to a plan

Illustration by Kim Sokol

Doesn’t that sound neat, to implement a story, rather

than implement a plan? I don’t know about you but I

get tired of implementing plans. Plans always feel like

they keep you in a box. A story is something else. It’s

pulsing. It’s breathing. It’s alive! – Madelyn Blair

What if vampires invaded a small New England

village? Salem's Lot

What if I had only 37 days to let to live? Life is a Verb, Patti Digh

What if ______________________

pose what if questions

heroes learn to see changing the world by becoming aware

how do I see this person?

CFO

NOT

seeing

I’ve got a thankless role with

the diciest risk/reward ratio of

any job short of a Navy Seal.

How will you

help me

make

money or

reduce costs?

How does this person see themselves and their situation?

seeing

Todd Baker << technowannabe flickr

Large Plastic Bag

Grand Canyon Mute Aleutian Pretzel Man

This wasn’t

Large Plastic Bag Grand Canyon Mute Aleutian Pretzel Man this was a real person with a name and

a history and stories that make him

laugh and cry. He was a who, not a

what, just like me. – Patti Digh

Say Hi to Yaron

when you’re listening or observing, pay

attention to how you’re reacting, what you’re

thinking, how you’re judging

If there’s a message

to my work, it is

ultimately that it’s

okay to be different,

that it’s good to be

different, that we

should question

ourselves before we

pass judgment on

someone who looks

different, behaves

different, talks

different, is a

different color. – Johnny Depp

how do you learn to see? to find the story? ask questions to understand

What do they

HEAR? boss

colleagues

influencers

friends

What do they

SEE? environment

friends

colleagues

what work offers

What do they

THINK & FEEL & FEAR? what really counts

major preoccupations

worries &

aspirations

What do they

SAY & DO? attitude in public

appearance

behavior towards others

PAIN fears | frustrations | obstacles

www.gogamestorm.com

GAIN wants/needs | measures of success | obstacles

empathy (magic if) who are they? what if I were in their situation?

curiosity why? why is it the way it is?

mikebaird flickr

play explore the possible

Stuart Brown, Play is More than Fun

conversations mixing different voices with your own

The family is shaped by the direction in which it points its conversation. It can focus on its

memories and basically keep on saying: “this is the way we are, this is what the different

members of the family have done and are doing.” Or it may treat itself as a base from which its

members set out to explore the outside world, and to which they return with something new to

say, so that conversation is constantly enriched by outside as well as inside happenings. We

become the prisoners of our families, our genes, our memories, only if we wish to be prisoners. It

is by conversations with others, by mixing different voices with our own, that we can turn our

individual life into an original work of art.

– Theodore Zeldin, Conversation

art make objects that talk and then listen to them

experimentation break boundaries and pursue unexplored

avenues of thought

-ilonQua- on Gosia Janik, flickr

experience the future explore life as it might be

Patricia Moore, Experiencing the Future

flip focus change the frame to change the meaning

man in suit sitting in chair

(assumptions get in the way)

lines and relationships

(see past assumptions)

asshole! (assumptions leads to judgment)

mom? (flipping focus reframes meaning)

Asurroca, flickr

Open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before – that plant or leaf or

dandelion. Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel that you are

alone with it on Earth! That it is the most important thing in the universe, that it

contains all the riddle of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are

SEEING… – The Zen of Seeing, by Frederick Franck

Neal, flickr

This power is in the focus. The act of observing, in

and of itself, makes a difference, in the material

world. Learning a new language, for example, is

relatively easy; it's just that you have to stop

paying attention to your current language to create

the new circuits. – Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz

becoming aware is about learning to see past

our assumptions

our judgments

the lenses we use to frame the world

all authors need to heavily edit their work

Our experience quite literally is defined by our assumptions about life. We make

stories about the world and to a large degree live out their plots. What our lives

are like depends to great extent on the script we consciously, or more likely,

unconsciously, have adopted. – Carol Pearson, The Hero Within

an edited backstory gives a more powerful

foundation for the future story

yearbook designer athlete teacher

Rex Pe, flickr matzoball stambler, flickr shinealight, flickr

if you’re not happy with your backstory, edit it

until it provides you with the emotional weight you

need to support you on your journey

Pink Sherbet Photography, flickr

If the writer reinvents character, he must

reinvent story. A changed character must make

new choices, take different actions, and live

another story – his story. – Robert McKee

freewriting… Remember back to [youth | last year…] to

a time when you were doing something fun or

exciting. Don’t think. Just write for 5 minutes

without taking your hands of the keyboard.

to wrap

When organizations, causes, brands or individuals

identify and develop a

core story,

they create and display authentic meaning and

purpose that others can believe in, participate with,

and share. This is the basis for cultural and social

change. – Pamela Rutledge

each piece of art* you create along your

journey

enlarges your reality

enlarges the reality of your audience (calling their belief systems into question)

infuses itself into the myths that shape our understanding of the world

*podcast, blog post, tweet, story, presentation, meeting, infographic, conversation, workshop, garden…

that’s why Plato tried to have storytellers expelled as dangerous people who wrap seductive, emotionally charged ideas in story

if you focus on your hero’s character

learning to see & discover a controlling idea for your life story

purpose & meaning

the plot will write itself

the hero is already within you stop waiting. start writing.

NOW compound interest

simple interest

writer’s block?

just start!

(remember, shitty first drafts)

Treat it like an adventure. An adventure worth sharing. @gapingvoid

your life story

the hero is within you

by learning to see

you become author of your life story

you will encounter dragons

each dragon you slay creates meaningful change

with purpose powering you

you push forward on your quest

one shitty first draft at a time

you won’t be alone

because purpose attracts

creating change

to recap

The Hero with a Thousand Faces & The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell

Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge, Geoffrey Bellman

Your Brain at Work, David Rock

Story, Robert McKee

Art & Fear, David Bayles & Ted Orland

Life is a Verb, Patti Digh

The Story Factor, Annette Simmons

@gapingvoid

Tell to Win, Peter Gruber

Start with Why, Simon Sinek

The Power of Story, Jim Loehr

Awareness, Anthony De Mello

Stephen King, On Writing

Bird by Bird, Ann Lamott

Seth Godin, Linchpin

Switch, Dan & Chip Heath

Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely

Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander

Influencer: The Power to Change Everything, Kerry Patterson

First Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey

credits

@joyce_hostyn

jhostyn@opentext.com

slideshare.net/joyce_hostyn

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