Talk about facing down your demons! In my Hero’s Journey not too long ago, I felt another Call to Adventure to strike out into other fields of work, and close the chapter on the existing chapter (by the way, the closing posts on the Hero’s Journey are coming in the next few days).

I answered the Call, and decided to leave the safe, secure job in the safe, secure Ordinary World behind to venture into a New World, not knowing what was in store, other than I had a Treasure I to seek: finding work I loved that would make a difference. And at the same time adding the most value to people I could in an area I love, self-development & life coaching, through the Life Coaches Blog.

It was very difficult to leave, I loved the fun little 3D animation company I was working in (shout out!). Even though it was hard to say goodbye, I felt compelled to, and I Crossed the Threshold.

The New World I entered had new rules I had to learn; being a freelancer I had to learn how to budget my finances now that income was no longer steady. I had to learn to schedule my time to be as productive as possible, even on days I wasn’t working on paid projects. Having my own goals and projects like the Life Coaches Blog helped a lot to set a direction and keep me from aimlessly wasting my time.

It wasn’t all bad, I didn’t just face Challengers like laziness (‘yawn, there’s no real deadline on this, you set it yourself after all…you can always postphone it’) and despair (‘ohshitohshitohshit I’m running out of cash and no-one’s calling I’mdoomeddoomeddoomed’), I met a lot of Helpers too, people who encouraged me, introduced me to jobs and interviews, gave me advice, left comments (thank you). Plus the growing results I saw from putting more effort into the Life Coaches Blog, like finally making our first financial milestone!

And like most Hero’s Journeys, I felt the strain of the Challengers building their strength; my freelancing work wasn’t getting as much money as I’d liked, my computer broke and cost me a lot more in repairs than I expected, my parents giving me warning signs that something was wrong. In turn, I knew I could not give in to the worst of the Challengers; despair and helplessness.

To that end, I strengthend myself. Day by day I built my emotional strength by envisioning a positive future, weekly by meeting my friends and gaining their positive energies, exercising regularly to toughen body and mind. I built my financial mastery by creating an expenses tracking list, to make sure I kept on budget. A positive attitude, good friends, a strong body, careful tracking of where I was versus where I wanted to be, I knew these were critical Helpers to help my face the Challenges ahead.

Well, yesterday my father dropped the bomb on me; his business has not been doing well and he needs serious financial help. Like all heroes, I had to face the consequences of my actions; to stir up and confront the negative energies of the Challengers was to challenge them in return. I was thrust into the Innermost Cave, with no choice but to face the worst of my Challengers, the source of them all, my Evil One, and it was financial lack. If I was honest about it with myself, it was the source of my problems for these last few months, and now it was smack in my face.

I don’t know if you’d call these last 2 days The Supreme Ordeal, perhaps I’m not there yet, but I feel in the midst of it now. The previous way ahead seems impossible, and in order to still get what I want I’m going to have to make changes or sacrifices.

But the smack of truth has also had an enlightening effect, I feel like I have more clarity in these last 2 days than I’ve had for months. I spent the last 2 days thinking and brainstorming on my progress thus far and what else I can do for the future. Clarity is the by-product of knowing the truth.

I’m not so sure yet what’s going to happen (very characteristic of the Supreme Ordeal), but I’m going to be talking with some people and making changes soon. I also have things in mind for the Life Coaches Blog that should help rock things up and kick some ass in time. Despite any financial difficulty, I’ll be damned before I give this up, I love writing and coaching too much. But things might start to come in slower as a result of making those changes.

I’ll keep you guys posted.