Hero on a Mission: A Path to a Meaningful Life

Meaning is only experienced in motion.

John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel taught me the discipline and joy of writing. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway taught me how to pace a book. Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood taught me to make the writing visual. Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies taught

to accept challenges in order to transform into the person capable of getting what they want.

What separates a villain from a hero is the hero learns from their pain and tries to help others avoid the same pain. The villain, on the other hand, seeks vengeance against the world that hurt them.

Not only this, but villains, like victims, play a bit part in the story. For all their power and might and bluster, villains are only in a story to make the hero look good and elicit sympathy for the victim. For as much attention as the villain gets, the story isn’t about them.

The idea that fate writes our story is a lie. We do not suffer fate. We partner with fate to write a story generated from our own God-given creativity and agency. And that story can be more

Victims and villains do not create meaning for themselves or for the world. Heroes and guides do. We build lives of meaning by stating an ambition, by enduring challenges, and by sharing our lives with others.

“What if life itself is not meaningless? What if just your life is meaningless?”

Experience something or encounter someone that you find captivating and that pulls you out of yourself. Have an optimistic attitude toward the inevitable challenges and suffering you will experience in life.