In the story of your life, are you a hero or a bystander?

Humanity's search for explanations regarding existence and ultimately a form of meaning which would justify it, is as old as written memory. Our ancestors passed down stories of gods, heroes, and every day people who would defy the odds and perhaps even their idea of divine order, for the benefit of mankind.

It is a shame that most look back on our collective cultural heritage and think how silly our ancestors must have been to believe in gods and heroes, and that behind the human world are petty gods who quarrell and fight for supremacy over the universe. Yet here we are, in a world where a movie about superheroes, such as Avengers: Endgame, can gross over 2.78 BILLION DOLLARS world-wide. We are clearly still engaged in the business of making and enjoying myths, and business is good.

But why have myths always been so interesting to us, to the point where humanity created entire cultures revolving around them? We can get a hint of an answer in the common thread that ties all stories together: their structure. All stories start off with a protagonist who is seemingly normal and lives an ordinary life, until the point where he is unexpectedly pulled onto a path of adventure. Suddenly, he finds that the ordinary rules of life do not apply anymore, that balance has been disrupted. He is faced by challenges and perhaps even a grand foe, but in the end, he emerges victorious, and brings the rewards of his struggles back to his ordinary life, which is now no longer just an ordinary life.

Stories are engaging because they are a useful reminder for us, by being a metaphor for our psychological evolution and a guide for our personal liberation. A great psychologist once asked the question “What is the myth you are living?”, because what are you to do if you don't realize that you are the hero of your own story? And if you do realize that, then what sort of story will you set out to create?

It has been pointed out that the peak of mental development is to understand that we make the rules, we define the subjective facts of our lives, and ultimately we are responsible for our beliefs, acts, and direction in life. Who you are and where you are, are the only things that you can have some control over.

So the question is, do you want to take responsibility and be your own hero, or do you want to be just a bystander in your own life?