The Journey Chapter Ivan Illustrations
A lot here... I like the passport logo idea.. should be good material to work with
Below are 4 illustration “drop-ins” with full descriptions (clever, witty, smart—Journey/EQ/FBTL lens), plus exact placement tags you can paste into the text.
1) “THE HERO’S JOURNEY… WITH GPS VOICEOVER”
Placement (insert after the paragraph ending “…Don’t you ever Stop’ Believen’.”):
[ILLUSTRATION 1 HERE — Hero’s Journey Map]
Full illustration description:
A clean, infographic-style “map” that looks like a classic road-trip itinerary fused with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey circle. The “route” is drawn like a highway loop with signposts: Call to Adventure, Refusal, Mentor, Threshold, Trials, Ordeal, Reward, Return. But each signpost has a sly modern add-on in smaller text:
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Refusal of the Call (aka “I’ll start Monday”)
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Mentor (YouTube + That One Coach Who Yells)
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Trials (Group chat, rankings, weather app lies)
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Ordeal (Second serve at 30–40)
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Return (With wisdom… and a sore shoulder)
In the corner, a tiny GPS display says: “Recalculating…”
Include a subtle FBTL nod: a small badge icon labeled “EQ = Travel Insurance”.
2) “COLUMBUS: CONFIDENTLY WRONG, HISTORICALLY EFFECTIVE”
Placement (insert after the sentence ending “…just ripe for European settlement.”):
[ILLUSTRATION 2 HERE — Columbus Shortcut]
Full illustration description:
A smart editorial cartoon—not goofy, more “New Yorker” vibe. Columbus stands at the helm with exaggerated confidence, holding a crumpled map that clearly says “ASIA (probably)” with a dotted line going wildly off course. A speech bubble: “Relax. I know a shortcut.”
Behind him, a weary sailor holds a small sign like a road-construction notice: “MILEAGE MAY VARY.”
On the horizon: stylized land labeled “AMERICAS” with an asterisk. Tiny footnote text at the bottom (tasteful, not preachy): “Discovery is not the same as arrival.”
The wit lands on journey vs destination, certainty vs reality, and the EQ theme of confidence without awareness.
3) “TENNIS LIFE: THE QUEST THAT NEVER ENDS (AND THE BAG IS HEAVY)”
Placement (insert after the paragraph ending “…I argue there’s no greater journey for self-knowledge than embarking upon the tennis life.”):
[ILLUSTRATION 3 HERE — Tennis Pilgrimage]
Full illustration description:
A semi-realistic scene of a tennis “traveler” (could be gender-neutral silhouette, or a player in modern kit) walking down a long road that’s shaped like a tennis court baseline extending into the distance. The player carries an oversized racket bag labeled “TENNIS LIFE” with visible “baggage tags” hanging off it like airport luggage tags:
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Expectation
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Approval
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Doubt
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Ranking
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Identity
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Old Tape (Inner Voice)
But there’s one bright, calm tag too: “Process.”
In the sky: a faint compass rose labeled “North Star: Controllables.”
A tiny roadside sign: “Next town: Flow (population: you, when you stop fighting yourself).”
This keeps it witty while staying true to your FBTL emotional-intelligence lens.
4) “THE TENNIS JOURNEY ELEVATION PROFILE: DOWNHILL, FLAT, HEADWIND, EXISTENTIAL CRISIS”
Placement (insert right before the paragraph that begins “Yet the tennis journey is not linear and predictable…”):
[ILLUSTRATION 4 HERE — Nonlinear Journey Graph]
Full illustration description:
A crisp “runner’s elevation profile” graphic—like what you’d see on a marathon course map—but it’s labeled “THE TENNIS JOURNEY”. The line starts smooth, dips (downhill joy), flattens (competent grind), then hits a brutal climb (headwind + soreness) and throws in random potholes labeled:
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Injury
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Slump
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New Coach
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Bad Call
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“Why am I doing this?”
At the steepest climb there’s a tiny stick-figure player bent over, hands on knees, with a speech bubble: “I hate running.”
Then, right after that, a small plateau labeled “Breakthrough (temporary)” followed immediately by another sign: “Recalibrating…”
In the legend box: -
Green dot: Flow moments (rare, worth everything)
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Purple dot: Clouded thinking (doubt/anxiety)
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Bold note: “Progress is not a straight line—it’s a loop with better tools.”
If you want, I can also add 1–2 “micro icons” (tiny recurring visual motifs) you can reuse across the whole chapter—like “EQ Passport Stamp” and “Recalculating…”—to make the illustrations feel like a cohesive series.
Absolutely — here are 2 micro-icon motifs you can reuse across the whole chapter (and future chapters), plus exact placement tags and full descriptions so an illustrator can keep them consistent.
MICRO ICON A: “EQ PASSPORT STAMP”
Where to place (sprinkle 4–6 times):
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After: “journeys can also be metaphorical…” → [EQ STAMP ICON — Metaphorical Journey]
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After: “the tennis life.” → [EQ STAMP ICON — Tennis Life]
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After: “The uncertainty, the doubts…” → [EQ STAMP ICON — Baggage]
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After: “you must reroute.” → [EQ STAMP ICON — Detour]
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After: “Here we shift our focus to what we can control.” → [EQ STAMP ICON — Controllables]
Full description:
A small, single-color “passport stamp” circle (or oval) with slightly distressed edges—cool, not cutesy—like it was stamped in ink. Inside the stamp:
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Top arc: FBTL
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Center: EQ CHECK (or EMOTION CHECK)
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Bottom arc: a rotating label depending on the moment: “Detour” / “Controllables” / “Pressure” / “Baggage” / “Breakthrough”
Add a tiny minimalist symbol in the center that changes by category: -
Detour: a little road-bend arrow
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Controllables: a small checkbox
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Pressure: a tiny stopwatch
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Baggage: a luggage tag
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Breakthrough: a small crack of light / sunrise line
It becomes your visual shorthand for: “we’re training the inner traveler.”
MICRO ICON B: “GPS: RECALCULATING…”
Where to place (sprinkle 3–5 times):
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After: “Google has taken over Rand McNally…” → [GPS ICON — Recalculating]
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After: “the tennis journey is not linear…” → [GPS ICON — Nonlinear]
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After: “Add an injury, a slump…” → [GPS ICON — Reroute]
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After: “Wild Problems…” → [GPS ICON — Uncertainty]
Full description:
A tiny, clean GPS screen rectangle (like a car nav display) with a simple route line. At the top in small text: “RECACLULATING…” (intentionally spelled correctly 😄)
On the route line, include a little warning triangle icon and a subtle label that changes by context:
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“Delay: 3 years, 6 months” (your joke lands great here)
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“Road Closed: Old Story”
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“Hazard: Outcome Obsession”
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“Alternate Route: Process”
This icon becomes your recurring punchline that also teaches: life (and tennis) is constant rerouting without catastrophe.
OPTIONAL “TINY THIRD” (if you want a trio): “BAG TAG: EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE”
Where to place (1–3 times, only when it hits hard):
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After: “Hope and dreams in one pocket…” → [BAG TAG ICON — Imposter Syndrome]
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After: “the aura of imposter syndrome…” → [BAG TAG ICON — Belonging]
Full description:
A single luggage tag icon with a string, like airport baggage. On the tag, a bold label: “IMPOSTER SYNDROME” or “DO I BELONG?” with a tiny checkbox underneath that says “NOT FACT. JUST FEELING.”
It’s witty, but it also nails your EQ stance: emotions are real data, not always reality.
Quick cohesion note for the illustrator (style guardrails)
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Keep them minimal, editorial, “sports-magazine smart.”
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No big googly eyes, no cartoons unless explicitly called for.
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Consistent line weight. One ink color + optional single accent tone if desired.
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These icons should feel like they belong in a premium tennis journal.
If you want, I can now go back through the Journey section and drop the icon tags directly into your text exactly where they’ll do the most work—so you can copy/paste the fully annotated chapter.
Below is your same text, now annotated with in-line placement tags for the two recurring micro-icons (plus the optional Bag Tag). I kept the tags tight and strategic so they land as witty punctuation rather than visual clutter.
The Journey in Society (ANNOTATED)
The concept of the Journey is everywhere in society. It's in our literature with Twain’s Huck Finn and Kerouac’s On The Road, it's in our classics with Homer’s Odyssey and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, it's immortalized by Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey, a cross-cultural mythic pattern of departure, initiation, and return. Heck, we even have a famous American rock band named Journey, Don’t you ever Stop’ Believen’. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Departure / Initiation / Return”] Yet one event stands out more than the rest when celebrating the human journey and that would be the exploits of one Christopher Columbus
Five hundred years and change ago, Christopher Columbus, armed with a questionable map and some shaky directions, set off on an epic journey from the coast of Spain, sailing the Atlantic with a crew of misfit marauders seeking a westward trade route to Asia. Like any male driver, Columbus thought he knew a shortcut. Oh, his route was shorter, alright, landing him in the Americas, thousands of miles from his desired East Indies. Yet not all who wander are lost, for though Columbus fell short of his goal, he did stumble upon a vast new land just ripe for European settlement. [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… Shortcut Detected”]
And though noble in his intent, history hasn’t been kind to Columbus, for Nora the Explorer he was not. Columbus hasn’t been fully cancelled yet, his colonizing and exploitative ways pretty frowned upon today. So instead of celebrating Columbus the man, we celebrate Columbus’ example of humanity’s explorer spirit. Not here to pass judgment or re-litigate history, much of our human progress has come at great cost to innocent others. But some credit is due to Columbus for his courageous and historic journey, establishing the shipping routes from Europe westward, which in time would become known as the Americas [EQ STAMP ICON — “Cost / Consequence”]
Today, we live in a known world. Google has taken over Rand McNally in the map business. GPS satellites hover in silent orbit above, aware of our every whereabouts down to the lane we drive. Yesteryear’s exploring has become today’s journey, the wanderlust to travel the world a driving life force for many. Yet journeys can also be metaphorical experiences, one’s that expand us, enlarge us, enlighten us, and more. [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… You are here”] [EQ STAMP ICON — “Metaphorical Journey”]
The Seekers among us. The conveniences of the past century have created a whole new breed of explorers. The Beats sought the heartbeat of America, the counterculture sought enlightenment looking inward, the modern triathlete and his Ironman flex exploring the limits of the human body’s endurance, Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, a global searching journey for the perfect wave, Musk talking of a manned mission to Mars, though in lieu of his recent public behavior, I’m leaving that as a you thing. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Seeking”]
Here on Terra Earth, we have the Iditarod, we study mass migrations from birds to penguins, we have journeyed through time and space, we even have a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, all perilous in their own ways. But I advocate for a different type of journey for exploring our innermost selves, one far more accessible, safer, and hopefully rewarding for those who see it through. I argue there’s no greater journey for self-knowledge than embarking upon the tennis life. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Tennis Life”]
There's no other journey quite like the tennis journey. It is long. It is mysterious. It’s a never-ending process of discovery. It challenges us; it changes us. It becomes a defining part of our identity. Meet another player, a fellow traveler. There’s an instant connection. The sharing of a common yet unique human experience. We are a subculture, not unlike surfers, Deadheads, Swifties. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Fellow Traveler”]
I love observing these kindred spirits connect. Their eyes light up. They share a secret world with its own language and codes. Where did you play, what level did you reach, who’s your favorite player, what racket do you use, who did you train under? It’s a conversation only tennis players can have and understand. A secret society awash in jargon, yet accessible to all. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Secret Language”]
To discover so much about ourselves from the most innocent of human activities: playing. We play tennis, we go to play, the court, our adult-sized playpen, the club, our playground. And it starts innocently enough, trying to play this most challenging of games. Then, we cross the line from playing to competing. And let the inward exploration begin. Who knew our fun little game could get so complicated? [EQ STAMP ICON — “Crossing the Line”]
Yet the tennis journey is not linear and predictable. It’s more like going for a run. There are stretches on the run when you’re flying downhill, the wind’s at your back, you’re feeling invincible as you hit your stride, and for a fleeting moment, all is well in your little tennis world. Bottom of the hill, you turn a corner, the course flattens out some, but the views are still pleasing, and you’re making good time. Little farther up, you begin to tire, a flat, mundane stretch of course appears that seems to last forever. You just try to keep your pace until you reach the home stretch, where it’s back up the hill and in to the wind and your knee is sore and your pace is crashing and you’re no where near your personal best and all the energy expended seems like a complete waste of time and now you hate running as you fall behind players you used to lap just last year as frustration sets in. You’re trying your hardest but getting worse, and that feeling you’re falling behind begins to gnaw at you, and for the first time in your life, you ask yourself why keep running at all? But you don’t quit. You keep going, because that’s what you do. The inertia of the tennis journey. We keep going, no matter what. [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… Nonlinear Route”] [EQ STAMP ICON — “Grit / Keep Going”]
The uncertainty, the doubts, the insecurities, the challenges, the baggage we carry on our tennis journeys, all run through our innermost selves lying dormant within. We don't get triggered often, but when we do, it can be revealing. Who am I? How am I? What am I made of? Where is this angst coming from? Am I of champion stock? It’s like seeing ourselves in a Funhouse mirror. Warped, disfigured, an almost unrecognizable version of our non-tennis selves. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Trigger”] [BAG TAG ICON — “IMPOSTER SYNDROME / Not Fact. Just Feeling.”]
And then it happens. Deep in your journey, you finally have your breakthrough. You battle, you overcome, you surprise yourself and others, and finally, you have your own personal moment of coronation. No more funhouse distortion. Its Transformer time, from duffer to dominant, when everything comes together. Now your journey expands, racket bagging your way through the tennis life. Hope and dreams in one pocket, fears and uncertainties in another, the aura of imposter syndrome weighing us down like an anvil. Do I measure up? Do I belong here? A world of Alphas, I feel like a Zeta. Do I have the ego to fill the room? It slows us down, the emotional baggage we carry on our journey. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Breakthrough”] [BAG TAG ICON — “Do I Belong?”]
As with all long journeys, there are obstacles. As we change, the game changes. Things that worked for the juniors won’t get you to the next level. Add an injury, a slump. A new coach or a relocation. You’ve hit a detour, you must reroute. You have encountered a 3-year, 6-month slowdown on your journey... You are still on the fastest route!! [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… Delay: 3 years, 6 months”] [EQ STAMP ICON — “Detour”]
And along our journey, we set goals. Setting tennis goals can be like climbing a mountain.
Every ascent leads to a base camp for even more precarious ascents. And at some point, we have to choose our route to the top. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Base Camp”]
Which route to take? Each route has a name. Juniors, High School, Club Teams, League tennis. If you achieve some level of success, it only gets more complicated (Turn pro, college tennis, home school, no school, private coach, Academy ( ITF, UTR, ITA, USTA, UTR, NCAA, NAIA, ATP, WTA, USTA ) So many letters!!! Its like someone dumped their Alphabits on my Scrabble Board [EQ STAMP ICON — “Alphabet Soup”]
And the verbiage of battle, is it not the language of the journey? We dig deep, I found a way, my well was dry, I ran out of gas, I hit another gear, I felt lost out there, I'm at the end of my line, mapping out a plan, wading into uncharted waters, breaking new ground, trailblazing, on a mission, pushing the boundaries, doing reconnaissance on an opponent. To boldly go where no man has gone before!! Ok, that’s a bit much, but no question, the spirit of the journey permeates our sport. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Fuel / Gas / Gear”]
To better understand our nature, many go to therapy to explore their psyches for hidden clues. I say enter a tennis tournament. Best therapy ever. Instead of benches, courts should have couches. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Therapy”] (This is also a GREAT place for a larger illustration later, if you want.)
Jeff Sparr Painting
We meet here with a common purpose, sharing in the tennis journey. We’ve embarked upon the tennis life. Punch in our coordinates. First Ball, Last Ball. If you’re here with us today, you’re likely somewhere in between. [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… First Ball → Last Ball”] [EQ STAMP ICON — “Coordinates”]
Yet we have no idea of the final destination, how long it will take, what will transpire along the way, and whether your vast investment will reap its just rewards. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Uncertainty”]
And there will be distractions along the way. For many, the hardest part of the tennis life is the sacrifices. For the opportunity costs are real… [EQ STAMP ICON — “Cost / Sacrifice”]
And if you are a tennis parent, not every step of this journey will be met with enthusiasm. You may have to push a little. Waking kids up to go hit… interrupting video games with basket of balls over shoulder… To have any chance at greatness, players need to be all in from an early age. And in an era where pushing is somewhat frowned upon, some strong nudging will be required. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Parent Push / Nudge”]
At some point, though, the journey becomes less about ranking and more about meaning. The beauty of our game is that there is no right way to play it. The confounding thing about our game is that there is no right way to play it. Two-handed, one-handed, cross-handed, double-handled. Eastern, Western, Continental grips. Semi this, full that, under spin, over spin, extreme spin, no spin. Rich, poor, black, white, junior, senior. So many ways to chase the same dream. [EQ STAMP ICON — “No One Right Way”]
And the payoff: When we look back upon our journey, it won’t be the wins and the losses that matter most. It's the lessons learned in committing ourselves fully, of giving all of ourselves to something we love. That’s the pot of gold at journey’s end. Sure, you’ll look back in hindsight and wish you’d made certain decisions over others. But that’s all of life. The tennis journey falls under the category of Wild Problems — problems we don’t know how they will play out, with no outcomes guaranteed. It's that uncertainty that keeps us up at night; it's the same uncertainty that gets us up in the morning, driven to work our hardest to become our best. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Wild Problems”] [GPS ICON — “RECALCULATING… Outcome Not Guaranteed”]
With so much uncertainty before us, what will be our journey’s northern star?
It’s here we shift our focus to what we can control. Here we focus on our personal development. We train our bodies to make things happen. We must equally train our hearts and minds for the emotions along the way. [EQ STAMP ICON — “Controllables”]
And how we prepare for that aspect of our journey is with emotional intelligence at the forefront of our quest, with FBTL our pocket guide. EQ operates as an immune system for the emotional challenges ahead. Situations that once baffled us we will handle with ease. We will intuitively know the right thing to do if we do this work. The challenges of the tennis life — there are forces in play conspiring against you from becoming your most realized self. With FBTL in hand, we can continue to grow in this most challenging of environments. [EQ STAMP ICON — “EQ CHECK / Pocket Guide”]
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