We love stories that portray the hero’s journey. What’s a fantasy novel without the hero mastering magic, overcoming impossible odds, facing their own inadequacies, and fighting a few dragons? These are all things that make fantasy fiction great.
We love to read about it but walking that path in our own lives is often extremely uncomfortable. It involves stepping out of a comfort zone, saying no to a boss that wants to cook the books, or standing up to a bully at the office, or simply following through on something difficult because you said you would. The path is hard and we have numerous insecurities and emotional barriers to walking it and staying on track. And where (or what) exactly is the path? In RPG games, the path is at least somewhat clear, marked by quest markers, and described in a quest book. In life, the path is less clear. We struggle to know what to do. We want meaning and purpose; a mission that is ours. We want certainty that we will succeed. But meaning and purpose requires responsibility. And success is never guaranteed.
We don’t have enchanted forests to fight, or great dragons to slay. Our fights are internal. Our dragon, the emotional body. We’d much rather engage with the dragons out there, than the one lurking inside. But when we do face our dragons, we learn something about ourselves. We learn that we can grow and become stronger, maybe even win a few fights once in a while.