Into the pit of despair: the Villain’s Journey

One can understand the urge to cynical about all of this. “‘Be the hero of your own journey… destiny or regret’ blah-blah-blah.” In a world of ubiquitous apathy and cynicism, it’s a natural reaction.

Here’s the thing. It’s optional. Everyone gets to make their own decision about what their priorities are. Now, one human universal that we can’t escape is the fact that human beings sacrifice everything for their highest priority. If you doubt that, ask parents what they sacrifice for their children, or simply observe what parents sacrifice for their children.

So what do you want to make your highest priority?

Well, what are you unwilling to sacrifice? You could make comfort your highest priority, are you willing to sacrifice your potential for excellence in exchange for comfort? You could make pleasure your highest priority. You could make money your highest priority. Some people prioritize pride. Are you willing to sacrifice everything for pleasure or for money or for your pride?

You could make excellence your highest priority. You can sacrifice everything to find out what you can really do when you really try. You can work to make the most of your gifts and skills, and in so doing you can make a meaningful contribution to your community. Since you were born with a burning desire to do exactly that, that seems like a pretty good priority to align yourself to. 

What happens to people who make excellence their highest priority?

If you look at human history, and if you look at the ancestral wisdom handed down through our storytelling traditions, people and characters who prioritize excellence make a meaningful contribution to humanity. They become champions. They become heroes.

What happens to people who make anything else their highest priority?

Their conscience eats at them for not following their desire to unleash their potential. “What are you doing? You’re better than that.” That nagging voice of conscience gives rise to anxiety. Many people turn to their vices to distract them from that anxiety. Over time anxiety becomes depression, then regret, then eventually becomes despair, because the only thing that will quiet your conscience is working to unleash your potential for excellence. The longer we try to drown out the that voice of conscience, that voice of regret, the more our vices take control of us.

More and more data are coming out about how anxious and depressed people are feeling in modern, technology driven societies. More and more of us are being afflicted by diseases and deaths of despair. Is it because we’ve gotten our priorities upside down? Is that causing us to make the wrong sacrifices? Is it because we are increasingly turning to distractions?

Looking at the world of myth and metaphor, those who sacrifice their potential in exchange for comfort or pleasure for a long enough period of time will become cowards at best and villains at worst. A hero’s actions are guided by hope and courage. A coward’s actions are guided by fear and self-doubt. A villain’s actions are guided by malice born of their own regret and despair.

Looking at the world we inhabit, we all know someone who is a dream killer; a naysayer. We all know someone who is so miserable that they can’t stand to see other people be happy. Why do they behave that way? Is it because they gave up on their own potential? Is it because seeing someone on a quest for excellence is a painful reminder of their own regret and despair?

Nobody wants to live the wrong life, and then die filled with regret. Everybody gets to make their own decision - destiny or regret? What’s it going to be?

Thanks

Thanks to the greats whose insights helped us find the path: Chef Jiro Ono, Tom Bilyeu, Bruce Lee, Chef Francis Mallmann, Tim Grover, James P. Carse, Simon Sinek, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, Maya Angelou, Zack de la Rocha, Koppelman and Levien, Miyamoto Musashi, Nelson Mandela, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, George Lucas, The Wachowskis, Jordan Peterson, Angus Fletcher, Chef David Chang, Ryan Holiday, Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, Goggins and David Goggins, John Wooden, and innumerable athletic champions. “The Force will be with you, always.”