Can Charlie Kirk’s Death and the Hero’s Journey Teach You to Build a Scaffolding for Courage?
- iyrunner9
- Sep 25
- 5 min read
There’s a rawness in our culture right now. A public figure was killed on a campus stage in front of his fans, haters, and eyes to innocent for such evil. The Middle East burns, and people are waking up to the fact that maybe—just, maybe they’re not the good guys..These headlines ripple through our days and add weight to the crosses we already carry. Polls show Americans are more anxious about current events than they were a year ago. And, if you feel overwhelmed, you are not wrong
But grief, fear, and anger do not have to become the story you live inside. If all you do is complain or tremble, you will stay small. The scaffolding method I learned as a pro athlete is what helped me grow and it was one of the tools short of touching grass and prayer, that I recommend now. It’s a practical, repeatable method that turns your story into the hero's journey.
What is the “Scaffolding” approach I learned as a pro athlete?
Scaffolding is a four-part, stacked system I learned as a pro athlete: Awareness, Discernment, Discipline, and Faith. Using this I learned to break monstrous goals into repeatable steps that took me from the Shire to Mordor and back.
Here’s how it goes:
Awareness: take inventory of where you are and how you got here. That inventory must be unflinching and honest. My advice? Lose your ego.
Discernment: decide where you actually want to go. Not the picture on a friend’s feed, but the destination that matters to your soul.
Discipline: set small, consistent habits you can repeat every day. Habits win more than heroics.
Faith: stand, in whatever name you give it, against despair and take the first move that miracles do happen.
These parts stack. Awareness makes discernment accurate. Discernment tells your Discipline what to practice. Discipline stabilizes Faith into a habit of showing up when you have no business to.
How do I honestly reckon with where I am now?
You must begin with humility and clear-eyed truth. Name the habits, the losses, the compromises you hide under jokes. Look to where you are currently and take stock of what it is that got you there.
Do this: tonight journal about where you are and write the story of how you got there—include your mistakes, triumphs, and everything in between. Then honestly look to see how you feel emotionally about yourself. Name that emotion. This is your starting place.
Then comes discernment of where you want to go and the things that influence you — what does that actually require?
Then comes discernment of where you want to go and the things that influence you. I recommend a period of contemplation, journaling, and meditation. The practices of St. Ignatius discernment of Spirits are very helpful.
Discernment is deliberate. It is sitting with the questions. Track what draws you and what repels you. Notice what in your life shifts you toward virtue and what pulls you away. Choose the influences that make you holier. Make that choice visible. Make it daily. That is destined to be your hero’s path.
What daily habits/actions actually form a scaffold that holds up growth?
Discipline is boring until it works. Pick repeatable things that can be done day in and day out and protect them like a contract with yourself.
Why must I bring faith into the scaffolding, and what does that look like now?
Faith is a refusal to let despair sign the contract of your life. For some that faith will be in God. For others it will be trust in the goodness of effort or the small miracles that show up when you keep walking. In my book A Bard’s Guide to Surviving a Dragon’s Attack I wrote a verse that perfectly encapsulates what I mean by faith:
“A song of who I used to be, of alleys, doubt, and rain.
A melody of getting up despite the taste of shame.”
Faith is belief that miracles are possible and It is choosing to walk, not waiting to feel fearless.
How does this method answer the fear stirred by Charlie Kirk’s Death, violence, and war?
Charlie Kirk’s death and the rising public tragedies magnify private fear. They make helplessness feel canonical. But letting these event be the author of your days or to reinforce what you already struggle with is to surrender. Scaffolding is the antidote because it returns you to what you can control: your mind, your body, your voice, your small actions, and your alignment of will to the stirrings of the soul.
When Charlie Kirk’s killing shocked the country, the responses split between fury, rumor, and movement. You can choose to be the person who lets fear fossilize you, or the person who becomes steadier because of it. That steadiness ripples outward and changes local communities.
FAQ — Quick Q&A to Get You Moving
Q: What if I don’t believe in God? Can this scaffolding still work?
A: Yes. Faith here means belief in a process bigger than a mood. That can be God, it can be commitment to craft, or it can be trust that effort compounds. The core requirement is courage to act when clarity hasn’t arrived.
Q: How quickly will I see results?
A: Small habits show effects in weeks and shape identity in months. Expect friction for the first 30 days. After that, your life will begin answering the choices you consistently make.
Q: What if I fail at the habit?
A: Failure is data. Athletes fail more than they succeed. Adjust one small parameter and continue. The scaffold is repaired in repetition.
Q: Isn’t it insensitive to tell people to “stop complaining” while real tragedies happen?
A: No. There’s a difference between honoring grief and making it the sole motion of your life. Mourn. Organize. Act. If your grief becomes paralysis and your only output is blame, you are wasting that grief. Turn it into service by becoming the person you were designed to be.
Q: How can I use the “A Bard’s Guide to Surviving A Dragon’s Attack” to help me on my hero's journey?
A: Read it as a field guide. Pull three short passages and use them as daily reminders. Use the exercises the way athletes use drills: Pre-order now for the November 18, 2025 release to have this particular companion at your side.
Now the blunt challenge: stop auditioning for the role of perpetual victim. If your default reply to fear is to complain, retweet, and retreat, then you are practicing a small life. That life seems safe, but is thin, and a sickness. Safe spaces are a sickness. Become better. By being all you can be, your heart shall begin to carry the safe space with you at all times. Start the scaffolding tonight: one honest paragraph, one tiny habit, one shared promise. Build a scaffold that holds you. Walk the path like someone who will teach others how to walk.
Be the hero your future self and community will thank.
— Izaic Yorks
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