The Hero Leads

Welcome, The Hero Leads readers. Thank you for following the link from the book to this page.
(If you don’t have a copy yet, you can find it on Amazon.)

Chapter 3: Refusal of the Call

In this stage of the Hero’s Journey, you face your fear. You have found something worth doing — a problem that needs solving, a change that needs leading. But before you act, doubt arrives. The excuses are plausible. The risks are real. This stage is about understanding what is actually holding you back, and deciding it will not have the final word.

Questions to ask yourself

• What reason do you keep giving for not starting, and how long have you been giving it?
• Are you waiting for permission, certainty, or confidence that will not arrive on its own?
• What are you protecting by staying where you are?
• If you fail at this, what actually happens? Is that as bad as it feels right now?
• Is your hesitation pointing to a real risk, or to the discomfort of something new?
• If you don’t act on this, who will? Does the answer feel acceptable to you?

Face your fear

The excuses come quickly. It’s not your department. You don’t have the authority. The timing isn’t right. Beneath every one of these rationalizations is fear: fear of failure, fear of losing what you’ve built, fear of the effort it will take.

Fear highlights the costs of action. It tends to go quiet about the costs of inaction. Refusing your Call does not make the problem go away. It defers it, and compounds it. Every short-term ease comes at a long-term cost: the conversation avoided, the decision postponed, the change that needed leading and didn’t get it.

The win at this stage is not courage without doubt. It is the decision to move forward despite it. What is the fear actually pointing to, and is it a reason to stop, or a reason to prepare?