Prepare for Your Hero’s Journey
Over the past few months, this blog has focused on the challenges that people face and the process through which we can overcome them. In-Formation is developing VAST Journey, a smartphone app designed to help people break down their challenges into manageable pieces. This post will be the first in a series focused on The Hero’s Journey monomyth and how it has influenced the design of the VAST Journey app.
The Hero’s Journey is a framework developed by renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which proposes that all stories, across various cultures and time periods, follow the same basic structure. According to Campbell, all heroes embark on a journey, where they encounter and overcome challenges, are transformed by their experiences, and then return to the ordinary world with the lessons they have learned. This journey of transformation can be a source of inspiration to people who seek to achieve change in their own lives, such as those who are facing challenges they want to overcome.
You may not know the Hero’s Journey by name, but you are likely already familiar with many different examples of it. It can be seen in all forms of storytelling, including folklore (such as the legend of King Arthur, stories of the Greek gods, and Aesop’s fables), Shakespearian plays, novels, films (like Star Wars and Indiana Jones), and more.
As a universally relatable framework of storytelling, the Hero’s Journey can also be used as a roadmap for how to overcome challenges in real life. In developing the VAST Journey app, the In-Formation team has created a story in which you embark on a journey as your own hero. To craft this narrative and overall user experience, the team took inspiration from the stories of transformational change passed down through many generations in various cultures. The VAST Journey app includes features incorporating each of the twelve steps of the Hero’s Journey cycle, which we will discuss in detail in future blog posts.
The Hero’s Journey cycle begins with the Ordinary World, which is what many would consider the default state of one’s life, when the hero has not yet set out on a quest. In the Ordinary World, the hero is lacking something, which causes them to feel dissatisfied with their everyday state of being. They may feel as if they are stuck in their current circumstances, with no way to move forward. At this point, however, they may not yet recognize what specific change they want to make in their life. For example, a person may have a successful career but still be unhappy because it is not a good fit for their personality. In this case, they may feel helpless to change their career and improve the quality of their everyday life.
That being said, no one is truly stuck in the Ordinary World forever. When people clearly define their goals and resolve to take action, they gain the power to change their circumstances. The VAST Journey app will provide many science-based tools to help users do so by encouraging them to engage self-reflection and develop their skills and character.
The next stage of the Hero’s Journey is the Call to Adventure, in which something inspires the hero to become aware of their goal, leave behind the Ordinary World, and set off on their quest. I will discuss the Call to Adventure, and what it may look like in the real world, in another post. I hope you will join me for the rest of this series.
In the meantime, prepare for your own Hero’s Journey by joining the wait list.