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What Is the Spark That Starts the Adventure?

What is it that we turn back and reflect on that gives us the energy to turn forward and charge?

Even if we dream of adventure, of exploring the unknown world, what is the final spark that transforms us from a Non-Player Character into a Player Character and makes us leave the safety of our home within the Game of Life?

Is it the desire to explore the unknown? And is that spark dead in us because we believe that everything has already been discovered and there are no undiscovered lands left? What will help us see the undiscovered country within us?

Explorer. Navigator. Storyteller. Bard.

What are those feelings within us that ignite the hero to act? Is it different for each of us? For me, is it knowing that there are unknown lands to explore or that there are people in need of help (by showing them their own hero within)?

The Entrepreneur

The Entrepreneur. Is this the hero of the age? If so, what sets them apart? Below are some quotes by Dave Gray from his book The Connected Company that might hold some clues.

Instead of looking for money, they focus on the means they have at hand and what they can afford to lose.

It’s a way of looking at the world, a way of being.

The logic of innovation is simple: work with what you have, seek commitments from others, evolve goals from individual to mutual, grow, and gain momentum. If you fail, move on.

What’s different in the game? Or is that what is different? That you as an entrepreneur recognize The Most Important Thing is that you can playfully shape and mold things around you within the game, as Steve Jobs described it.

Entrepreneurs aren’t smarter than other people. They’re just looking at the world through different lenses. Perhaps with telescopic capabilities, as they don’t see it as it is but as it could be.

It’s not about making money either. The money should be there but it isn’t what inspires us to act. It’s not the spark.

The Wrong Heroic Identity

Playful + Inspirational = Bard

Is it because I’m looking at myself in the wrong heroic way? I’ve been envisioning this tall human bard as myself. What if I’m not human? What if I’m more like a small and quirky little hobbit? This makes more sense.

I love the comforts of home because I love building comforting environments where people can feel at home within. That said, I love the road, travelling, and adventure but the journey, the quest, needs to be one that is engaging, meaningful, and worthwhile enough for me to leave the comforts of my home. What is the quest that sparks my adventure? What is worth leaving home for?

The Right Heroic Identity

These thoughts, for some reason, made me return to another book entitled Winning The Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. Flipping through its virtual pages on my iPad, it becomes evident as to why.

Chapter 7 of the book describes how to utilize Empowerment Marketing to create your organization’s story which in turn allows your customers to become heroes in the greater collective story. What I’m struck by is how this same approach can be utilized to figure out your own individual story.

For example, in Chapter 6 it talks about defining your core story elements, in particular one that relates closely to my quest now, the Brand Mentor. This is the personification of your brand in action. In individual terms, this is my personal brand or identity of how I wish to be seen by others and how I can help them.

At the time of reading the book, I had chosen one mentor archetype but it didn’t fully resonate with me. Now I know why. I needed to craft my own. Thus the mentor archetype with which I see myself by is the Bard. Its three key trinity of values, comprised from the values of other archetypes, are Playfulness, Wholeness, and Uniqueness.

Playfulness because I was born and emerged out of it. Wholeness because that is what I seek to help myself and others achieve a sense of within our lives. And Uniqueness to show the diversity and potential of each individual, including myself.

My Character

Wait. Is this it? Am I my own spark?

Is it my own story, my own struggle, that inspires me? I’ve been looking for others in heroic need when it was really myself who was in the greatest need of all. For in fulfilling my own need, I can help others in need as well.

And coming full circle, in reflecting back on my past, it has inspired me to move forward. I now realize that I am my own spark. We are one in the same.

I am truly becoming a Player Character within the Game of Life.

Whereas my résumé makes me feel inadequate because of its inadequate ability to describe who I truly am. My character sheet, with which I’m now evidently crafting, describes the fullness of who I am and who I am becoming. It is the map of making sense of one’s self, not only to navigate and connect with yourself but to navigate and connect with others in turn.

Originally posted on Google Plus

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