When I came upon the Gartner Hype Cycle in Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s  Bold, I just had to take a closer look.  This graph for new technology looks to mirror how we develop our personal story or purpose.  Here’s my journaled copy tracking the journey of maturity and viability:

Here’s how it can work out personally.

Something triggers a person’s need to take a long look at their lives and make some changes.

When they identify the way they want or must take, enthusiasm levels are high and there’s a hype of expectation and a flurry of activity.

Then reality hits and it’s clear this is going to be harder than first thought.   Disillusionment and de-energising now follow, leading to the hype of disillusionment.

If we can break through this, we begin to identify the things we need to do in order to grow our story: ‘the most important telltale factor is the development of a simple and elegant user interface – a gateway of effortless interaction’.*

We find a way which works for us: a personal interface of values, curiosities, skills, Sitz im Leben, and hopes, out from which the flow of our lives emerges.

(*From Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler’s Bold.)