I’ve been meaning to read the Power of Myth for rather a long time, and finally, on the last day of November, as I spent long sleepless hours crossing the Pacific from San Francisco to Taipei to Indonesia, I listened through the audiobook of it. There’s a part near the end where Mr. Campbell is talking about one of the biggest messages he has learned from all of his studies of culture and myth and he summarizes it as “Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid!”. His words immediately struck a chord with me and I stopped the track, and pondered my reaction for a minute, and came to the conclusion that I strongly disagree with that. I would have to say Follow your bliss and don’t let the fear stop you!

There have been plenty of instances in the last several weeks leading up to my departure from America that I felt fear. Fear of the great unknown that I am so surely thrusting myself into for the next five (or more) months. Fear at having spent so long happily planning and preparing for such an exciting adventure to be beset by such doubts in the last few weeks. Am I making the wrong choice to leave for so long? Have I abused my friends’ kindness by asking and receiving so much help from them? What am I not prepared for? What if I run out of money before the end? What if I spend so much effort crossing the world and I don’t actually have any enlightening experiences and return home without any clearer idea of my place in the world and what I should be doing in it? And plenty more besides…

It is quite human, and quite common, to have fear. Fear of small everyday things. Fear of big all-encompassing life-affecting things. It is quite a hard and uncomfortable thing to recognize and be willing to admit to yourself that you have fear. Many, many people choose not. They go through life making choices and actions to avoid their fear, to keep it at arms-width, or further, even though, really, it never truly goes away. It will always be hanging over your shoulder, the great unacknowledged elephant in the room of your life.

There is nothing wrong in reacting that way, though I believe that in doing so you miss out on very valuable life-changing opportunities. Let yourself be afraid. Be with your fear and see what it is. The opportunity you have is that if you acknowledge it, and face it, and examine where it originates from, fear will show you where your challenges really are in life. It will show you the places inside yourself that need help and need your attention.

The real challenges are never truly the travel delays, the inclement weather, the cost of things, the loss of luggage or personal items, etc. There are plenty of inspiring stories from around the world that prove this. The real challenges are the ones triggered inside of you when there are obstacles in the way of where you want to go. How do you react to those obstacles? How do you let them affect your way forward?

If you let the obstacle, the fear, rule the situation, then you give over your power of choice to that obstacle, that fear, and you let it make the choices for you. There may be very difficult situations you find yourself in and the choices available to you may not be anything close to the choices you would prefer to have, but there always is a choice available.
Yes or no. To take action or not. To turn back or go forward.
There is always the power of choice available to you.

While it may seem easier to let someone or something else make the decision for you, to not face the scary thing, to not accept the responsibility for where you are going, how much are you missing out on by doing so? How wonderfully might things turn out if you didn’t let the fear stop you? How will you know?
If you don’t let yourself be afraid, if you ignore your fear and run away from facing it, you may never find out.

Mr. Campbell, I would like to add to your message. I would like to say: Let yourself be afraid. Follow your bliss and don’t let the fear stop you!