I Watched “Finding Joe” Today

The documentary speaks of “the hero’s journey” and how it is a running theme in most movies and, more importantly, in all of our lives. We must all slay our own dragon, at some point, by overcoming our fears in order to defeat our biggest opponent, which in the end, turns out to be only ourselves.

A psychic once told me that I “have trouble reaching things”. I knew exactly what she meant. I start a lot of things, and I have all the potential in the world – I know that. However, finishing those things isn’t always as easy for me. I make decisions to learn a new language, play a new instrument, write a book. I’m exited and passionate in the beginning, but I’ve never successfully completed any of them… yet. I never really thought about why until recently. I assumed I’m lazy or just a procrastinator. Those may still be true. Or, maybe it’s my aversion to commitment. But those observations don’t look deep enough.

It turns out fear is at the root of it all. Fear of what though? Fear of challenges, which may seem odd coming from a competitive person like me. I love a good challenge, but not too challenging – you know what I mean? I want to be able to win without killing myself in the process. Fear of failure. What if I commit a huge amount of my precious time to something, and it turns out to be a flop? Was it all for nothing? What if the failure is public, and that results in embarrassment? Fear of my own success and the responsibility that comes with that. Success is interesting. It is so gratifying in the moment when you overcome a hurdle or reach a goal. But often times, success must be maintained. That first hurdle is just the beginning. More work, more time, more investment is needed to overcome each subsequent hurdle, as the stakes become higher. The responsibility to continue to succeed becomes greater.

“Finding Joe” tells us that the only way to reach our true bliss in life is to take the unbeaten path. It will surely be filled with dragons along the way. But we all have unique gifts and talents that must be shared with the world. We cannot look to others to know what those gifts are or how to cultivate them. We all have our own life to live and our own lessons to learn to reach our highest potential. The sooner we realize that fear is the only thing holding us back, the sooner we can begin slaying. Cue Beyonce.