When I work with my men on Reclaim your Inner Throne, one of the core concepts I bring to them is the Hercules Complex and how debilitating it is.
The Hercules Complex (coined by James Hillman AFAIK) is the tendency in men to think we need to be strong, to muscle through it, to exert heroic willfulness and perfect our strategy to make a killing in the game of life.
A lot of men are engaged in this game, and they generally seem to be miserable and unbalanced motherfuckers heading for burnout while trying to look good.
So on Reclaim your Inner Throne, I get busy helping these men see through the illusion of the bullshit story we’ve been fed, and cast off what is essentially the juvenile mindset of being superhuman (which is a path of loneliness, emotional repression, fear of being found out etc etc).
I came to think about this more deeply today because I realize my work is spreading and the next round of the training is starting to fill up already. This is a new reality for me, and it’s amazing.
I would’ve thought that making breakthroughs like these would make me feel like a badass.
Wouldn’t you?
But I’m feeling more vulnerable than ever. The sense of protection I used to have is just gone. Just fucking gone. And from my heart all the way down to my ass, it’s as if I’m one huge receptor for my surroundings. (yes cue the funny jokes, I know you want to ;) )
Sometimes I feel like a leaf on the wind.
It’s such a trip how my interior experience seems to be the polar opposite of people’s exterior experience of me. People trust me more than ever. Most people seem to trust my dharma, my power, my capacity to lead a movement.
Reclaim your Inner Throne is spreading – and fast. And yet, while that is my reality, I’m also noticing my sensitivity, my vulnerability, my health problems, how I can’t quite make it work with the woman I want, how I’m an absolute nitwit with important aspects of my life and business.
It seems like a total deconstruction of who I thought I was. A deconstruction that I trust will pass, leading to a new layer of stability. (That again will be deconstructed at some later stage.)
And I imagine it’s happening because the success I’m currently experiencing is creating a foundation for me to survive the truth of who I am.
The feeling of standing victorious atop a mountain, having perfected my identity and won at the game of life is just completely absent. And good riddance to it; leave that image to people who live in the old world.
I can’t yet confirm that my experience is universal. But I can assure you it’s very common. And if you’re a man who thinks being on purpose is going to make you feel like a superhuman badass, then come on Reclaim your Inner Throne, and we’ll help you get on purpose. And we’ll find out if it will make you feel like superman.
I bet you it won’t.
Because reality wants you to be you. Not some fucking glossy glamour version. You – the way you really are. And so many of you are committed, like I was, to the miserable project of perfecting yourself, of repairing your broken parts.
But you’re not going to get rid of your broken parts. Because they’re not broken. They’re just not. It’s just your fucked up mindset that makes you think they are. Your wounds are the very gateways to your gifts. So just stop chasing away your gold, will ya? ;)
Growth in the Sovereign parts of you is not made by fixing what’s not working. The kind of growth that you need to Reclaim your Inner Throne happens by embracing reality as it is and surrendering any attachment to the outcome of that embrace.
I’m learning a thing or two about that these days.
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