The truth about Purpose...

There’s a moment in every heroic story where the man runs.

Not toward greatness, but away from it.

It’s the stage Joseph Campbell called “Refusal of the Call” and it’s where most men still live.

Bruce Wayne flees Gotham before he becomes Batman.

Rocky won’t take the fight with Apollo before he becomes the Champ.

Peter Parker rejects the weight of power before becoming Spider-Man.

It’s always the same beat.

Fear, delay, denial.

It’s a pivotal scene in cinema, usually short, early, and almost pathetic.

We cringe as viewers because we know what’s possible for the hero if he just says yes.

We want him to wake up, take the shot, step into the storm.

Because that’s when the transformation begins.

That’s when the badassery breaks loose.

That’s when the movie gets good and he exacts revenge on his arch nemesis in an epic montage of fists, fury and awesomeness.

… And yet, off-screen, in real life, this moment drags on for years… or a lifetime.

Cringe.

The Modern Refusal

You don’t need a cape to be in denial.

You just need a comfortable life that keeps you from your calling.

The modern man refuses the call every time he chooses:

• A paycheck over purpose

• Profit over passion

• Numbness over presence

• Security over soul

• The known over the unknown

He hides behind logic.

Says things like,

Now’s not the right time.

I’ve got responsibilities.

It’s too late.

But deep down, he knows he’s lying to himself.

Because the real responsibility is to answer the call.

To build what only he can build.

To lead what only he can lead.

To become who only he can become.

_{This is how Monsters are Made.}

Hitler wanted to be an artist.

Not a dictator.

Not a tyrant.

He applied to art school twice, and was rejected.

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield uses Hitler as the ultimate case study in what happens when a man denies his gift.

When the soul’s true path is ignored, suppressed, or delayed, it doesn’t disappear.

It festers.

It warps.

It begins to seek expression through darker means.

This is Satan’s playground.

Every delay is a distortion.

Every negotiation, every rationalization, every procrastination warps a man’s true calling into a shadow.

The gifted musician becomes a man with no melody, grinding through corporate structure, wondering why he feels soulless.

The would-be writer becomes a critic instead, judging others’ work instead of confronting his own fear.

The leader becomes a manipulator.

The healer becomes a people, pleaser.

The warrior becomes an addict, chasing danger without direction.

When a man does not become who he’s meant to be, the underworld takes him.

The refusal doesn’t always mean genocidal maniac,

but more often, generational tragedy.

A man who abandons his marriage.

A man who models cowardice to his sons.

A man who dies full of potential, but empty of purpose.

If it were a movie, the theater would clear out after the first act.

No sequel. No climax. Just the hero sulking in silence, forgotten.

Not because people don’t care…

… but because watching another man waste his life is unbearable when it reflects our own.

But, someone would stay.

One or two loyal viewers, still in their seats.

The ones who believe there’s more to the story.

The ones praying for the revival, waiting for the music to shift, for the storm to break, for the man to remember who the fuck he actually is.

Because there is more after this moment.

The refusal is never the end, it’s the tension before the turning point.

This is the moment that makes the comeback legendary.

Cue the 80’s montage… here comes the revival.

It’s where the real story begins, not when the man is already great, but when he’s in the pit and still chooses to rise.

And if you’re in that pit, if your calling feels distant, if you’ve spent years trading obedience for comfort, good.

It makes for a better story.

Transformation always begins in the dark.

Mastery starts when denial ends.

And all it takes is a decision.

So just decide, go all in.

You got this.

E

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