Notes from the Couch: Finding Joe
This is the first entry in a new series I’m calling Notes from the Couch; unpolished but honest and curious reflections from documentaries I watch while navigating what I’ve lovingly dubbed my burnout-to-sabbatical era.
I don’t promise hot takes or life lessons. Just the things that stir when I’m sitting still long enough to notice them.
Notes from the Couch: Finding Joe
Mildly profound takes from someone in sweatpants
Turns out, “follow your bliss” doesn’t mean quit your job and move to a yurt. (Unless it does. But only if that’s your actual bliss.)
I paused this documentary a little over halfway through because I was hit with a wave of something between resonance and revelation.
They were talking about “finding your bliss” and about fear, specifically, the fear of what other people will think if you try something bold and fail. Which made me stop and think, well wait, if most of us are worried about what others think, but everyone has a hero journey, are we all both the hero and the naysayer? And do those who ignore (or never hear) their call know they missed out? We’re all walking around thinking we’re too scared, too late, too weird to follow the call, while envying the few who did. But no one’s ever really ahead; we’re just on different parts of the spiral.
They talked about the "hero’s journey" and how it’s not just some Joseph Campbell metaphor, it’s a real pattern. We get the call. We resist it. We suffer. We surrender. We act. We change. And then, if we’re lucky, we share what we learned.
And the call doesn’t always arrive dramatically. It’s not always a lightning bolt. Sometimes, it’s a quiet dread that your days are out of sync with your true nature. Sometimes it’s burnout that won’t resolve. Sometimes it’s knowing that if you don’t try, you’ll regret it more than if you do and fail.
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
I’ve had this idea most of my life that everyone is secretly an explorer, just waiting for permission to leave the script. So when people roll their eyes at phrases like “follow your bliss,” I would think they were just scared, or stuck, or just thought it all implausible.
But watching this, something clicked. Maybe some people aren’t explorers. (I know, I know, no shit right.) Maybe they’re tenders, builders, steady anchors. Maybe their bliss is in constancy, not chaos.
And maybe “follow your bliss” doesn’t mean “go make something wild.” Maybe it just means: Get quiet enough to hear your own voice. Then listen.
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
The heroic path isn’t always a career leap or a grand exit. Sometimes it’s choosing a job that leaves you enough energy to be a great parent. Sometimes it’s staying where you are, but more honestly.
And yes, sometimes it is quitting your job to build something absurd and personal and beautiful from scratch. (Hi.)
We mostly hear the dramatic stories because they make good movies. But there are quieter myths playing out all around us. We just have to look a little closer to notice them.
Loosely Held Rating:
🌞 Sun-Warmed Hammock
Cozy, quietly clarifying, unexpectedly helpful
I’m curious if you too are like me and your calls are often life overhauls, ground-shaking changes, or if they are more like small awakenings that slightly edit your day-to-day.
