Crossing The Threshold

You’ve committed to leaving behind the Ordinary World and stepping into the New World of your Hero’s Journey. And as you do, you’re exposed to new sounds and sights, new learnings, surprises, adventures and experiences you’ve never had before.

As you do so, you might feel out of place. You might feel uncomfortable, inexperienced. You are the proverbial babe in the woods. You ask yourself, ‘What was I thinking to leave my ordinary world behind?’. We’ve all been in situations like this.

But you’re stretching beyond your old self.

Sometimes, when crossing the first threshold, you meet with boundaries. It might be the environment, a roadblock or obstacle in the way, the road might be too far away, a storm or a drought might test your resolve, or it might be people, who come up and challenge you.

Meeting the Threshold Guardians

These are the Threshold Guardians, who will test if you’re serious about setting out on your journey. The Guardians are there to test your commitment, they might throw all kinds of obstacles, threats or difficulties in your way to make you back off and go home.

The Threshold Guardians will not waste their time, they’ve seen too many people who start out with grand ideas but give up at the very first obstacle. But once you’ve shown these guardians you’re not only inspired, but committed; by locking down and doing the hard work, ignoring naysayers who want to discourage you from leaving the flock, by leaving behind cumbersome luggage that was only weighing you down, by passing the guardians’ tests, you are allowed passage into the brave New World.

Who or what are the Threshold Guardians you’ll have to face in crossing the first threshold into the new world of your Hero’s Journey? Are they people you have to meet, places you have to go, things you have to do that are outside of your comfort zone? Or are they fears and doubts you have to overcome inside of yourself?

Into The New World

Once you’re in the New World in pursuit of your treasure, you have to learn new rules, you have to go to new places, see, hear and feel new things. How do things work differently in this new world? What new gadgets, weapons, magical instruments do you need to learn to use? How do you need to interact with your new enviroment to get what you want?

How do the people act differently, how do they think? What’s the new language they speak here? How do they carry themselves, discuss, argue, carry out deals?

Where is your New World, and what threshold do you have to cross in order to get there? What do you have to learn in order to not just survive, but thrive in this new place in search of your treasure?