Ep. 086 | The Best is Yet to Come: Rediscovering an Ancient Compass for a Life of Purpose and Adventure Today
Release Date: 08/28/2023
Ep. 099 | How to Stay Positive and Free from Fear when the News is Overwhelmingly Bad and Fear-based
Andrew Petty is Dying
How can we stay positive and free from fear when the news is overwhelmingly bad and fear-based? I got this topic idea in the form of a question from a good friend and a former guest on this show, Frederic Tate. You can find him on Ep. 056 . Frederic’s a fascinating guy with a fascinating story. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview, and I wholeheartedly recommend that episode. Frederic's experience is that it is difficult to stay positive and free from fear when he perceives the news to be overwhelmingly bad and fear-based. Many of you can relate. It is a wild time to be alive on planet...
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Ep. 098 | The Brave Habit: Cultivating Bravery in Daily Life, with Todd Henry
Andrew Petty is Dying
What is bravery, and why is it so important? What are some of the common counterfeits of bravery? How can we detect and eliminate them from our own lives? How can we get braver? As an “arms dealer for the creative revolution," is the author of seven books and a veteran podcaster of 19 years who speaks internationally on creativity, productivity, and passion for work, and helps people and teams generate brilliant ideas. Todd's new book, The Brave Habit, is a concise, persuasive, and timely treatise on bravery. In today's conversation, we explore bravery through the lens of The...
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Ep. 097 | Evolve: Create an Ending to Make Way for a New Beginning
Andrew Petty is Dying
This episode is different in a few notable ways. First, it’s extemporaneous. Second, I recorded it to video for release on my fledgling YouTube channel, where all of my past episodes currently reside. Finally, I share news about the future of the podcast–an ending to make way for a new beginning. Key moments in this episode include: 00:00:01 - Embracing Change and New Beginnings 00:03:24 - Pursuing a Unified Framework 00:08:07 - Making Bold Choices 00:11:10 - Moving Forward with Conviction 00:13:48 - Seeking Audience Input Remember, you ARE going to die. But you’re not dead yet....
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Ep. 096 | Look Up, Let Go, and Live, with Chris Ray
Andrew Petty is Dying
Do you ever feel powerless against your hurts, hang-ups, and habits? Chris Ray's hurts, hang-ups, and habits literally killed him. Remarkably, his encounter with Mortality wasn't permanent, and Chris returned transformed. Chris is no longer powerless against his hurts, hang-ups, and habits because he has learned to look up and let go. If we have ears to hear, we can learn the same lessons from Chris’ story without a harrowing ordeal of our own. If we have the courage to add Action to our Insights, we can experience transformation, too. I met Chris through a mutual friend...
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Ep. 095 | How to Become Someone You Feel Genuinely Good About
Andrew Petty is Dying
Who are you? A big question, for sure, and not a slow pitch over the plate for most of us. But it’s a pitch that is critical for us to get good at hitting. As of this recording, I’m just a couple days removed from the first Growth Camp of 2024, where we plumbed the time-proven depths of the Hero’s Journey framework to go beyond resolutions and discover a heroic path to our best year yet. Once again, the importance of who we are–that is, the quality of our character and our responses in life’s defining moments–rose to the surface and stayed there, demanding our...
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Ep. 094 | Beyond Resolutions: A Heroic Path to Your Best Year Yet
Andrew Petty is Dying
Each new year presents the opportunity for a new adventure. Often we start out strong but fizzle in a month or two. Our fragile resolve sabotages even our most well-intended and heartfelt resolutions. We need something stronger than our own resolve and more reliable than our resolutions. As we kick off a new year, I invite you to go with me beyond resolutions to find a heroic path to your best year yet. In this episode, you will: Learn about the Hero’s Journey. Be equipped to embark on a transformative journey through the Hero's journey framework. Discover a path to...
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Ep 093 | Tap into the Transformative Power of Pain, with Audrey Dwyer
Andrew Petty is Dying
Are you tired of feeling stuck and overwhelmed in the face of life's challenges? Have you tried to push away pain and ignore its lessons, only to find yourself feeling even more lost and disconnected? It's time to break free from the ineffective pattern of avoiding pain and embrace it as a powerful teacher. By leaning into the discomfort and allowing ourselves to learn from our pain, we open the door to personal growth and resilience. It's time to rewrite your story and discover the transformative power of embracing pain as a teacher. In this episode, you will: Discover how Audrey...
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Ep. 092 | Crack the Contentment Code: Find the Path to Contentment
Andrew Petty is Dying
If you're feeling trapped in a cycle of constant striving and never reaching true contentment, you’re not alone. Maybe you've been chasing external achievements, thinking they will bring you lasting fulfillment, only to find that they leave you empty inside. Perhaps you've been seeking validation from others, hoping that their approval will bring you a sense of worth, only to discover that it's fleeting and insubstantial. Or maybe you've been relentlessly pursuing material possessions, believing they will bring you happiness, only to realize that they only provide temporary...
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Ep 091 | My Hero’s Journey: Lessons Learned on the Road to Growth Camp 2023
Andrew Petty is Dying
The road to Growth Camp 2023--an event built around the Hero's Journey--was a Hero's Journey of its own. In this episode, I invite you along on that Journey and share some of the key lessons I learned from it. I hope my story equips and encourages you to embark on your own Hero’s Journey or persevere in the one you’re already on. In this episode: Discover the transformative power of the Hero's journey framework to guide your personal growth and overcome obstacles. Learn the art of perseverance and unlock the key to conquering challenges on your path to success. Uncover the...
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Ep. 090 | A Tale of Two Mountaineers: How Comfort Sabotages Our Contentment, and What to Do About It
Andrew Petty is Dying
Do you desire genuine fulfillment and contentment? Are you searching for a way to achieve true satisfaction and inner peace? In this episode, I'll reveal an antidote to discontentment. By embracing the hero's journey, you can unlock the path towards lasting contentment, breaking free from the sabotaging clutches of comfort and convenience. It's simple in principle, but far from easy in reality. Perhaps that's why so many of us avoid it. But don't let that be you. Wide (and easy!) is the way that leads to discontentment, and many find it. Narrow (and hard!) is the way that leads to contentment...
info_outline“Not only did this hero's journey resonate with a desire we all have, it felt like it told the story of the life I was actually living. And I think I realized that it wasn't a one-time adventure–that it had the potential to be a pattern or a framework that I could lean into and try to follow over and over again in order to find more meaning, more purpose, and more transformation in my life. In many ways it was what I was missing back in Virginia. I realized it was offering me a pathway, almost like guideposts on the journey that could deliver the things I wanted more of in life, which were meaning and purpose and significance.”
-Jon Ritner
Boredem, confusion, aimlessness, lack of purpose, lack of fulfillment, and a host of other emotional and psychological woes. These are some of the problems that, though they're not entirely new to humanity, seem especially rampant in the affluent Western world today. You might even be able to relate to one or two of them yourself.
When the modern age doesn't offer many useful remedies to these ills, where else can we look? It's time to return to the "old roads," to quote a line from an Andrew Peterson song. It's time to return to wisdom that has been generated over generations and stood the test of time. It's this wisdom that my long-time friend and colleague, Jon Ritner, and I unpack together in this episode through the lenses of our own stories.
It's the wisdom contained in The Hero's Journey, a compass for living derived, surprisingly enough, from humankind's core mythologies.
In this episode, you'll get a crash course in the Hero's Journey and an introduction to how to begin using it in your own life right now to vanquish the dragons of boredom, confusion, aimlessness, lack of purpose, lack of fulfillment, and the laundry list of other besetting woes. As you vanquish those dragons, you'll discover the treasure behind them that you were uniquely meant to find and share with the world. If you're willing, you're in for the adventure of your life.
This episode is also an appetizer for the main course that Jon and I will serve up this October at a special one-day event designed to fully equip you to use the Hero's Journey in your own life.
Introducing Jon Ritner
Jon Ritner and I met in college in the early 90s. We were acquaintances then but became close friends in the years immediately following college, when we were roommates, each of us trying to find ourselves and find our way. We ended up on the same church staff together, a chapter in our stories full of highs and lows and lessons hard-won. We've seen each other at our best, and we've seen each other at our worst. Eventually, our paths diverged, and that's the point at which we pick up Jon's story today.
Jon has served as a pastor for 20 years in various capacities in the US and overseas. Today, he's the Chief Strategy Officer for Communitas International, a global non-profit. He also coaches leaders who are starting and shaping communities to live like Jesus, and the author of Positively Irritating, a philosophical and practical guide for faith leaders navigating the changing cultural realities in the western world. Jon and Kristyn, his wife of 22 years, live in Burbank, CA with their teenage son and daughter.
Highlights from This Conversation
- What The Hero’s Journey is and why it matters in our real-world lives today
- How The Hero’s Journey framework helped Jon make more sense of his life so far, and how it can do the same for you
- How The Hero’s Journey helps Jon live a life of more purpose, meaning, and adventure today, and how it can do the same for you
- The distinguishing qualities of a Hero, and how to be one
- Why and how adventure is an antidote to so many of today’s besetting woes, like boredom, aimlessness, confusion, and lack of purpose
- And more. Tune into the full episode for the rest of the good stuff.
SAVE THE DATE: Special Andrew Petty Coaching Event, Saturday October 14, at the Steamboat Social Club (brunch and dinner provided)
I’m excited to announce a special Andrew Petty Coaching event–a one-day intensive that combines the inspiration of a great Ted Talk with the relational richness of a long lingering meal and tops it off with the insights and action steps you acquire from personal coaching.
The event is called The Best is Yet to Come: Rediscovering an Ancient Compass for Living a Life of Purpose and Adventure.
If today's episode has sparked something inside of you, then The Best is Yet to Come is just the thing to propel you forward on your next great adventure. This episode introduced you to The Hero’s Journey, but The Best is Yet to Come will go deeper. We’ll identify the reasons we so often fluctuate between listlessness and boredom in one season of life and then overwhelming stress and anxiety in the next. We’ill give you language to describe the call on your life as well as license to accept that call with courage and support. We’ll help you move from victim to Hero in your own story and empower you to live a life you’ll be outrageously proud of when you die. Whether you are just setting out on your journey or are stuck in a rut, this is the right time to declare that the best is yet to come!
Keep your eyes peeled for registration details. Still figuring all that out...ha!
In the meantime, how can I help you become who you were made to be and live the life you were made to live? Find me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, visit my website, or email me.
Thank you once again for your time and attention. Don't forget to follow this show and share it with your friends, and I'll see you next time on Andrew Petty is Dying!
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If You Liked This Episode, I Think You’ll Like These, Too
- Ep. 005 | How to Become the Boss of Your Fear: Bravery-building to Live With More Guts and Gusto
- Ep. 012 | How to Harness the Winds of Discomfort to Get Where You Want to Go: Becoming a Seasoned Sailor on the Seas of Life
- Ep. 022 | Tune Out to Tune In: Hearing & Heeding Your Inner Voice in a World Full of Noise
- Ep. 025 | The Contentment Conundrum: Cracking the Code
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell)
- The Writer’s Journey (Christopher Vogler)