Michael Phelps and the Romance of Archetypal Heroic Journeys

Since Ancient Greece, individual athletes and Olympians have made sacrifices of mythic proportions in the pursuit of the holy grail in the form of a gold medal. As a retired Guinness World Record athlete, I know from first-hand experience the commitment and mental toughness it takes to condition your body and mind for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill your destiny.

I also know from personal experience, that the athletic process often embodies the classic archetypal "monomyth" that Joseph Campbell and others refer to as the "Hero's (or Heroine's) Journey." Recently, Michael Phelps was featured in an advertisement for one of his sponsors that captures the grit and daily commitment it takes to complete the hero's journey as an aging Olympian.

In this blog post, I'm going to look at this ad campaign through the lens of the hero's journey and my own life experience as an athlete, and author of The Athlete's Way.

What Is the Hero or Heroine's Journey?

Joseph Campbell described the monomyth, or ‘"the hero’s journey", as patterns of life experience that are repeated again, and again, as classic archetypes and narratives throughout the ages and across cultures. These archetypes reveal themselves frequently as a universal part of the human experience for people from all walks of life. You don't need to be ascending Mt. Everest or breaking world records to be on some type of archetypal heroic journey.

In 1988, Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell for a PBS documentary, The Power of Myth, which was filmed at Luke Skywalker ranch. All of the Star Wars films are driven by the classic archetypes found in myths and the hero's journey that have been part of our collective unconscious since the beginning of time.

Typically, the basic premise of the hero's journey is that the protagonist aches to leave the safety of home and go on an odyssey that takes him or her to the farthest reaches of their human potential and puts them in an "otherworldly" situation. On this journey, the hero or heroine must overcome huge obstacles in order to find the holy grail.

Once the hero has claimed the holy grail—which for Phelps is more Olympic gold medals as an aging athlete who may be past his prime—he returns home to his "village" to share the lessons learned from the journey. In watching the recent video footage of Phelps (included below) it seems clear that he is at an eye-opening phase of his archetypal journey and appears to have let his guard down so that we can go behind the veil and intimately observe his daily athletic process from the sidelines and our computer screens.

Each of us can find clues for solving the riddles of our current lives by looking to the wisdom held in classic archetypes and myths. I believe we are all ultimately on a quest to have the peak experiences represented by the hero's journey on some level.

Although most of us, myself included, will strive for seemingly mundane pursuits when compared to legends such as Michael Phelps, we can all benefit from deconstructing the elements of his journey and gain valuable insights about what it takes to become a world-class champion.

Michael Phelps Embodies the Hero's Journey

Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. Phelps has competed in three separate Olympiads ( '04, '08, '12). He's won 22 medals, 18 of which were gold. He also holds multiple world records.

At age 30, Phelps is currently pouring every ounce of himself into preparing for one final Olympic quest at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio this August. In a dramatic and emotional new advertisement, the camera follows Michael Phelps throughout his grueling preparation for the upcoming Olympics.

Obviously, Phelps' heroic journey is extraordinary. That said, I believe that the imagery and message held in this YouTube clip is universally inspiring. Regardless of whether or not you're an athlete, Phelps' daily routine and the passion he pours into pursuing his heroic journey can inspire us all.

I believe that in order to become the ruler of your destiny, you need to "rule yourself" first. Pouring your heart and soul into pursuing a dream takes unwavering dedication and commitment. This is one reason why working out and participating in sports can be so beneficial to someone's chutzpah and resilience throughout his or her lifespan

Recently, I wrote a Psychology Today blog post, "What Causes Economic Insecurity to Morph Into Physical Pain?" based on a study which found that when people feel out of control of their lives and have economic insecurity that they become more sensitive to pain and are more likely to take painkillers.

In my mind, the montage of this film embodies the core message of The Athlete's Way which is that through daily physical activity people from all walks of life can fortify their resilience in ways that allow them to feel more in control, have more grit, and nurture the tenacity to make it through hard times without crumbling.

Neurofeedback Illuminates Personalized Ways to Self-Motivate

A few days ago, I wrote a Psychology Today blog post based on a March 2016 study from Duke University which found that teaching people in an fMRI how to activate the ventral tegmental area (VTA) allowed them to fine tune self-motivation. In that blog post, I describe my personal process of activating my VTA in order to stay motivated when I was in training for ultra-distance competitions:

As a young athlete, I was cognizant of the feedback loop between physiological states and psychological mindset based on conversations with my father who was a neuroscientist and my tennis coach. In adulthood, when I began training and competing internationally as an athlete, the lessons I learned on how to have "grace under pressure" using relaxation response techniques helped me stay calm and not choke.

However, there was another component beyond relaxation that was even more important to becoming a world-class athlete than staying calm. In order to develop the endurance to become an ultra-distance triathlete and do things like run 153.76 miles in 24 hours, I needed to sustain unwavering levels of self-motivation. I had to figure out ways to stay motivated, to train hard and practice consistently, even on days when I felt totally uninspired and burnt out.

For a neverending wellspring of motivational thoughts, I relied on a rolodex of lessons and tricks I'd learned through decades of life experience on how to stay self-motivated. I also borrowed from the wisdom of other athletes. For example I'd surround myself with motivational quotations by such people as Muhammad Ali saying, "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' I run alone on the road, long before I dance under the lights."

Watching Phelps in this video immediately reminded me of that Muhammad Ali quotation. The first thing I thought when I saw the Phelps video this morning for the first time was that if I were still training for athletic competition, I would have this clip in heavy rotation to keep myself motivated.

Even though I'm retired from sports, the imagery in this clip inspires me to stay dedicated to other quests in my life, such as becoming a better writer. Hopefully, this imagery and these insights will be of some inspiration to you, too, in the pursuit of your personal quests and hero or heroine's journey.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold

A key point in the hero’s journey is described as “The Crossing of the Return Threshold." In this stage, the hero must return back to the work-a-day world after completing his or her quest in exotic far away places. After seeing the video of Michael Phelps and his fiancée together watching an early edit of "Rule Yourself," it appears that the next phase of Phelps' journey is about making himself vulnerable and acknowledging that he didn't achieve his hero's journey on his own.

In this clip, you can see Phelps and his girlfriend Nicole react to the new advertisement. This is a rare and intimate peek behind the mask of an Olympic champion.

Every time I watch the "Rule Yourself" video, it gives me goose bumps and makes my eyes well up with tears. I think one reason this video makes me so ferklempt is that there's something very bittersweet about the aging athlete pouring every ounce of what he's still got left in the tank for one final showcase of his talent. Trust me, I'm fully aware that when it comes to athletic accomplishments I'm an insignificant flea compared to Michael Phelps. That said, my story and life experience does hold some clues to the hero's journey that relate to that of an Olympian.

When I was coming of age, The Power of Myth allowed me to realize—in the most beautiful way—that I was both exceptional and unique, but nothing special. Campbell helped me realize that my trials and tribulations, as well as my rites of passage were nothing new. The obstacles that I would face as the protagonist in my own hero's journey had all been played out millions of times before in an archetypal way.

Understanding universal archetypes, myths and their various outcomes was like a crystal ball that allowed me to foresee the short- and long-term consequences of the decisions I made every day. It also made it easy to romanticize the entire journey, even when training and competing as an ultra-endurance athlete was an excruciating suffer-fest.

I spent two decades of my life in a perpetual state of biting off more than I could chew and pursuing ever-higher goals as an athlete. I had some success, but in my late 30s I realized that I was getting very long in the tooth, and would officially be over-the-hill soon. I wanted to finish my career with a bang, but knew that it would take the same type of commitment and grit that Phelps displays in the "Rule Yourself" video.

By the time I was 37, I'd completed dozens of Ironman triahtlons, run the Badwater Ultramarathon a couple times, and won the Triple Ironman (7.2-mile swim, 336-mile bike, 78.6-mile run done consecutively) three years in a row. In order to end my career at the top of my game, I decided that I wanted to break a Guinness World Record. As an ultra-runner, I knew that this meant I'd have to run 6 marathons back-to-back in under 24 hours.

With the help of my family and friends, I was able to achieve my final athletic quest and return "home" in one piece. Luckily, I lived to tell my story and share it with others in ways that might inform their lives.... such as I'm striving to do in this blog post. Joseph Campbell describes the important aspect of returning home to your family and friends and "The Crossing of the Return Threshold" by saying:

"The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive the impact of the world. Many failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold. The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life.

Why re-enter such a world? Why attempt to make plausible, or even interesting, to men and women consumed with passion, the experience of transcendental bliss? As dreams that were momentous by night may seem simply silly in the light of day, so the poet and the prophet can discover themselves playing the idiot before a jury of sober eyes.

The easy thing is to commit the whole community to the devil and retire again into the heavenly rock dwelling, close the door, and make it fast. But if some spiritual obstetrician has drawn the shimenawa across the retreat, then the work of representing eternity in time, and perceiving in time eternity, cannot be avoided. The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real."

The Hero's Journey Is a Universally Accessible Rite of Passage

You don't need to be a world-famous athlete or some kind of extraordinary human being to embark on an archetypal heroic journey. The hero's or heroine's journey happens to varying degrees anytime you go on a quest for some type of holy grail that takes you out of your comfort zone. I believe that the process of pushing yourself to your limits is the key to optimizing your human potential and fulfilling your destiny.

Regular physical activity can fortify your resilience and determination, but small quantities of exercise go a long way. The images of Phelps in this advertisement are more representative of the human spirit than the physical body. Therefore, I hope that the next time you're feeling unmotivated or uninspired—or feel like your life is out of control—that you'll pull up the video of Phelps training for his final Olympics, activate your VTA, and seize the day. Carpe Diem!

To read more on this topic, check out my Psychology Today blog posts,

• "The Dark Side of Mythic Quests and the Spirit of Adventure"
• "Peak Experiences, Disillusionment, And the Joy of Simplicity"
• "Love What You Do Pour Your Heart Into It and You'll Succeed"
• "Star Wars: The Force Awakens to 'The Heroine's Journey"
• "Superfluidity: Decoding the Enigma of Cognitive Flexibility"
• "The Power of Awe: A Sense of Wonder Promotes Loving-Kindness"
• "The Neuroscience of Savoring Positive Emotions"
• "Subliminal Cues Impact Motivation, Endurance, and Longevity"
• "Neurofeedback Illuminate Personalized Ways to Self-Motivate"
• "Carpe Diem! 30 Reasons to Seize the Day and How to Do It"

© 2016 Christopher Bergland. All rights reserved.

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