I spoke with my team this week about the hero’s journey, or Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. This was brought up in a leadership program at Mozilla as a tool we could use to understand the different types of journeys we take as leaders and what phase we might be in.

There are a few things I wanted to emphasize with the group:

• Put things in perspective. “The Pit” or “The Abyss” can seem pretty daunting and when you’re in the middle of it, things can seem pretty bleak. However, once you conquer a few, you build confidence and recognition that what you’re facing isn’t the end of the world — that you’ll find a way to work your way through it and make a breakthrough.
• You need faith. Belief in yourself, your abilities or your cause can sustain you through otherwise dark periods. There’s a reason why you answered “The Call” — just like Luke left Tatooine in Star Wars without really thinking about it. It’s because deep down, even if you are frustrated or tired, you know you can accomplish great things and overcome this challenge.
• You will need allies. There is no Luke Skywalker without Yoda or Obiwan. Likewise, you won’t be able to move mountains without help from others. Could be your mentor, your god, your friends or your spouse. Either way, it’s important to realize that to make true breakthroughs you need to open up enough to let people help you get to where you need to go. Help can come as feedback, support, listening or many other ways. Remember to look for it and seek it.

Not very useful, but I found it pretty entertaining to deconstruct movies from the 1980s and see how they fit in with (or butchered) the formula. It’s interesting to see how they used montages to breeze through parts of a hero’s journey just because of budgeting or time constraints. You have to admit, though: the training montage from Rocky IV is pretty epic.

Anyway, just wanted to share some of those thoughts.