This is an 8-part Antihero Overview Series, where you’ll learn and quickly apply key concepts at every stage of the Antihero’s Journey. You can find links to previous parts of the series at the bottom this newsletter.
Most of us antiheroes have skillfully mastered the art of rebelling against our calling. Yep, rebellion is an art. It's the expression of human creative skill and imagination—just like painting a mural or composing music.
We're Da Vinci when it comes to rebellion.
As an antihero, when you decide to rebel against your calling, you don't throw an ugly tantrum. You toss a charming revolt. Let's be honest. You look good opposing your purpose. You make it look so attractive. Rebellion is subtle.
Check out yesterday's core attributes after realizing your calling:
Awe and deep respect
Confidence and conviction
Ambition and commitment
Generosity and self-sacrifice
A positive change comes over you. The hero in you awakens. But eventually a temptation emerges to do something more with your calling than just serve others.
You figure out that you can use your calling to serve a different purpose the Giver hasn't sanctioned. You begin to serve yourself. And you become a professional good at it.
Stage Three: Rebellion
This is the Rockstar phase for us antiheroes. We make our own music and dance to the beat of our own drum. Giver who? He doesn't exist in this stage for us.
We rule. We rock. And the people who don't really know us intimately LOVE us for it! We're worshipped for our greatness that’s now been twisted.
In the typical hero's journey, the hero receives a call to adventure and then refuses the call, only to get a push from a mentor or the divine to fulfill their purpose.
This hero refuses their calling by running, denying, or dismissing the call to greatness. That's not you. You embrace your greatness but manipulate it for selfish reasons. Here's how you begin to change:
Awe becomes Disregard
Confidence becomes Arrogance
Ambition remains Ambition
Generosity becomes Selfishness
The only quality in the list above that hasn't morphed into something totally different is your ambition to fulfill your purpose. But the ambition has shifted—to self.
You have the same amount of ambition as before, but now you're using it to feed those other attributes that have changed—disrespect, arrogance, selfishness.
What triggers your rebellion?
Figure out what causes you to manipulate your calling to serve yourself rather than others. What are the events or people in your life that provoke your rebellion?
Here are some of my triggers when it comes to a public audience:
Words of affirmation from people I admire
Successful speaking engagements with audience participation and applause
Seasons of doubt that question my self-worth
None of these triggers are inherently harmful. But they tend to be the events that activate the temptation to manipulate my purpose for self-gain.
As a result, if I'm not careful, I'd take on speaking engagements at only specific places to receive a certain level of applause or respectable affirmation as I show off and inappropriately manage my self-worth deficit.
Write down your triggers and think of the events or people in your life that easily prompt you to twist your purpose for a purely selfish motive. You might be surprised what you find out.
Be great,
Chris Bartley