“There are two kinds of people…One kind, you can tell just by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more surprises from it. Whereas, the other kind keeps moving, changing. With these people, you can never say ‘X stops here,’ or ‘Now I know all there is to know about Y.’ That doesn’t mean they’re unstable. Ah, no, far from it. They are fluid. They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive.” 

Gail Godwin, The Finishing School 

Have You Already Had A Call To Adventure?

I’m thinking about you and the Calls you’ve had. You know; the urge, nudge, slam – however it came to you, that got you from one place in your life to another. Think back. I know it has happened to you more than once – those Calls that have kept you “fluid”, “moving forward and making new trysts with life.” 

What was your Call – or one of them?  And what action did you take to respond to it? Was it when…

You asked for that promotion.

You bought the house.

Moving became a reality for you.

You left the relationship.

You said, “Yes!”

You'd decided to start a new business.

You stopped spinning and stepped back from the busy-ness.

You enrolled in a course.

You'd started acting, singing, writing, teaching.

You left the company.

You wrote the book proposal.

The fact is, you listened, then…moved out onto the edge, on your own and leaped.

What's The Big Deal About The Call?

What, you’re asking…so what, Susanna? What’s the big deal?

What if you hadn’t left that job where you were so unhappy? What if you hadn’t accepted that invitation to travel? Or, what if you hadn’t taken that course or left that relationship or started that new project?

It IS a big deal! If you hadn’t done it, you’d be…different. And I bet you wouldn’t be as amazing as you are now. Look back, remember yourself, then…

Maybe you were scared to make the change, make the leap.

Maybe you thought you knew what would happen if you did and that worried you – a lot. (You didn’t know, though, did you?)

Maybe you didn’t want to “upset the apple cart.”

Maybe the people around you advised strongly against it.

Or, maybe you were just so comfortable in your comfort zone.

Maybe there were a boat load of “what ifs”…but then, you just did it.

Are You Acting On Your Call To Adventure?

It’s one thing to GET a call to make a change and another thing to ACT on it. That’s major. That’s what makes you (yes, I’m talking to you!), a Heroine – Alive! A Hero of Your Own Incredible Journey! Can you see that that’s  really something? That’s so much to be proud of. I sure hope you’re loving that Heroine-within. She is so deserving of your praise. This is a big shout out to all of you! 

Knowing about the Heroine’s Journey and how Answering Our Call is the big ticket out of Ordinary Life (a.k.a. The Comfort Zone) and into “aliveness” is what motivated me in a big way to focus on and teach about the Heroine’s Journey.

I believe that women need to take the time to value their journeys, to recognize that the things they’ve done; the changes they made have evolved them into a larger version of themselves – each time they answered that Call.  (We have many as we continue on our life journey.) 

I think we take our courage and grit for granted. My message to you is to wake up to your heroineism! Celebrate what you’ve achieved. This will inspire other women to do the same. The way you can do this with the biggest impact is to share your stories with each other. I know. You think your story is too small, too insignificant. No. Each story is worthy, of value and will inspire others to do what their Call is asking them to do.

Receiving The Call

Here’s a little more about this phenomenon, your Call – from my book, You Are a Heroine: A Retelling of The Hero’s Journey.

The Call happens differently for everyone and is unique in what it asks from each of us.  It’s designed to encourage (give birth to) what we need to do next to grow.  

The heroine is in Ordinary Life.  Things are running along as they usually do, until something happens…there’s a Call To Adventure.  This can be an event, a person seeking her out, an inner urging…a call to leave Ordinary Life and to enter an “unknown world”, an “adventure.”

Sometimes calls are from that “still, small voice” within, your intuition. You might have a nudge, a gut feeling to do something.  It may also come as a feeling that you’ve outgrown where you are in your job, in a relationship. It doesn’t seem to be working for you anymore. Or, external circumstances can be The Call. You get fired. You get offered a promotion. Someone says something that causes you to rethink a situation. Calls can come from anywhere and everywhere. 

Answering The Call

John P. Schuster, in his book, Answering Your Call, A Guide for Living Your Deepest Purpose, (I’ll be interviewing him as a guest on my podcast in the near future!) writes that there are different theories about where calls come from:

• From the more spiritually/theologically inclined:  “the call is God talking to you.”
• Psychologically inclined:  “the call is your higher self sending you a message about what you should be doing.”  
• From the more biologically inclined:  “our brain cells need stimulation or they shrivel up under the routine of life.  So the call and its urges and voices are sets of neurons stretching themselves out for new stimulation, the kind that comes from new challenges.” 
• From the more sociologically inclined:  “the call is the part of society and your upbringing that you have coded into your own internal messages saying, ‘Yoo hoo!  Wake up and get on with your life.”

I tend to go with “the Call is God talking” theory, that’s also how I define an intuitive hit.  This isn’t my brain coming up with something.  It comes from someplace else.  It’s a skill in itself to learn how to be still and quiet enough to hear those deeper calls.

How You Respond To The Call To Adventure

How you respond is up to you.  You have a choice.  Yes, you even have a choice when the call is something external that forces you out of Ordinary Life…like you’re promoted to the corporate office in another state or you get seriously ill.  You get to choose how to respond to external calls.

Some people respond right away to a call; some people think about it awhile; other people think about it for a long while; and some people avoid it like the plague.  The latter type of response is called Refusal of the Call in heroine’s journey terminology and it can go on for years.  (I’m great at the Refusal.

Timing is everything here.  When and how to answer a particular call is completely unique to the person.  You might not be ready when the call first comes around.  

Peter. S. Beagle writes, “Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen.  A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.”

Personally, when I’ve had a call that I try to ignore because it’s scary or for whatever reason, it just doesn’t leave me alone.  It keeps reappearing in my consciousness and that tells me I need to pay attention.

I want to hear your stories. Tell me about one Call To Adventure you’ve had. I especially want to know what got you to answer your Call. What motivated you? What was that moment, as scared as you might have been (maybe), that got you to do it? Write to me – I will answer!

Let’s give our Calls the attention and recognition they deserve. They set us off on the journeys that evolve us from ordinary to extraordinary!