The Hero's Journey: Life's Great Adventure

Harris Communications: Home of the Hero's Journey Since 1997

Michael Crichton Redefines Himself

Home Counseling and Therapy Hero's Journey: Philosophy Hero's Journey: Psychology Uncategorized Michael Crichton Redefines Himself

After climbing Kilimanjaro…I was forced to redefine myself. Climbing the mountain was the hardest thing I had ever done, physically, in my life, but I had done it.

(Adapted from The Hero’s Journey: The Path of Transformation. Copyright Ⓒ by 2016 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved.)

I had defined myself too narrowly

In his wonderful book Travels (1988), author and director Michael Crichton writes about his ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Not only was the five-day climb (three up, two down) the greatest physical challenge of his life, it was also an experience that forced him to redefine who he was.

The Hero's Journey plays a major role in the stories Michael Crichton tells in "Travels."

Crichton did little to prepare for the climb, assuming it was not going to be terribly difficult. However, on just the second day, he was already battling horrible blisters and exhaustion. He was in such bad shape that his guides felt that he would never make it to the summit.

However, Crichton did not want to give up. He continued the climb, struggling both physically and mentally, walking in pain and doubting his ability to reach the top. At one point, a doctor who was in his climbing party told Crichton his blisters were so bad that would have to return. Crichton refused. He pushed himself up the mountain, reached the summit and, in the process, awakened potentials that he had suppressed all his life:

What I learned [from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro] was this: that I had defined myself as a person who didn’t like heights or cold, a person who didn’t like to be dirty, a person who didn’t like physical exertion or discomfort. And here I had spent five days cold, dirty, and exhausted; I had lost twenty pounds; and I had had a wonderful experience….I realized then that I had defined myself too narrowly….I had always secretly defined myself as a physically weak and somewhat sickly person. After climbing Kilimanjaro, I had to acknowledge that I was mentally and physically tough. I was forced to redefine myself. Climbing the mountain was the hardest thing I had ever done, physically, in my life, but I had done it (p. 168).

By climbing Kilimanjaro, Crichton had unintentionally put himself into a situation that would force him to transcend what he believed were his limitations, to step outside of the narrative he had written for his life. Afterward, he had no choice but to redefine who he was. The climb was for him a call to the adventure of the rest of his life. After Kilimanjaro, he began to try things he didn’t think he would like and to do things he didn’t think he could do.

Transcending Perceived Limitations

For many of us, our journeys in life are journeys of redefinition. The story we have become has transcended the story that we are living, and we are forced to find or create a new context for our self-narrative. In other cases, our story has evolved to the point where we have become a different person. However, our current situation will not accommodate that new person, and we go on a journey to find a new situation that can accommodate who he have become.

The danger, of course, is that we assume our self-definition is who we are in life rather than who we are in this moment. When that happens, our self-definition begins to limit our lives and create inconsistencies between the person people expect us to be and the person we really are. This is why we must, like Michael Crichton, periodically revise our definition. In Your Mythic Journey, Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox refer to our self-definition or personal narrative as our personal myth, but the idea is the same:

While personal myths give us a sense of identity, continuity, and security, they become constricting and boring if they are not revised from time to time. To remain vibrant throughout a lifetime we must always be inventing ourselves, weaving new themes into our life-narratives, remembering our past, re-visioning our future, reauthorizing the myth by which we live.

The Journey to Redefinition

“Redefining” ourselves—or revising our personal narrative, if you will—is one of the driving prin­ciples of in the Hero’s Journey. We outgrow our self-definitions, and the personal narrative that defines us becomes too small to contain the person we have become. When this happens, limita­tions or inconsistencies begin to appear in our lives, and we are called to a journey to redefine not just who we are, but what we’re capable of doing. It’s a journey to expand our personal narratives—the story we tell ourselves about ourselves: the story that sets the rules and boundaries for our lives.

But redefining ourselves is, as Crichton discovered, never easy. We face the Threshold Resistance (and the Call Refused) when our threatened egos try to protect themselves from change or when our lifestyle (job, peers, family) caution us to cling to the security of the known. But if we push through the resistance and embrace the struggle and pain of growth, the journey will take us to new levels of consciousness and self-understanding. Like Crichton, we will reach the peak, and from that expanded perspective, discover a world of possibilities and opportunities we had never imagined were open to us.

«     »

Questions & Feedback

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Check out our new guide, "Create a Personal Mandala." New Guide
© 2020 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved.