From this thing about games:

One of the stages of Jospeh Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is the “refusal of the call”: the initial unwillingess of the hero to venture out of the village and into the unknown. You only need to think of Luke Skywalker; he’s received the call (Obi-Wan says to him “Come with me to Alderaan.”), but he refuses it (”Uncle Owen needs me.”). Of course in that and most hero’s journeys, the refusal is only temporary.

From this thing about Xena:

“Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or “culture,” the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless…. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death.” (Campbell, pg. 59)

From this thing about the call to adventure:

A substantial argument surrounds this stage. Some argue that this stage always takes place, attributing the least moment of hesitancy to Refusal of the Call, I disagree. I can think of numerous examples where the Refusal of the Call does not take place, and it does not hurt the story at all. (”Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Top Gun”, etc. In these examples the hero is all too eager to go on the adventure, doubt hardly enters his mind. In these stories, friends of the hero often will take the role of the Threshold Guardian and try to present the hero with a reason why it might not be such a good idea after all to go through with it, but the hero pays them no heed.)

Having said that, refusal of the call does not always occur immediately after The Call to Adventure. But the interesting thing is that through myth and through life we learn that if the Call is refused, what remains is stagnation, disintegration, and death. Nothing positive generally comes from Refusal of the Call. The call unanswered is droll and boring. Think of it, Luke drives Ben to Archorhead, drops him off and then goes back to moisture farming. Or Indiana Jones thinks that going up against all those Nazis, and after the Ark of the Covenant, is far too dangerous, he’d much rather stay and teach archaeology. Not that moisture farming or archaeology might be boring, but simply that they are orders of magnitude less exciting than becoming a Jedi Knight, or fighting Nazis for the Ark.

There is also another possibility. The hero who cannot refuse the Call because circumstances have thrust it upon her. Think “Erin Brockovich”, or Maximus in “Gladiator”, or Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. In this instance, the Refusal of the Call will manifest itself through a regret or wishful thinking. (”I wish the ring had never come to me..” etc…). But the hero will continue simply because he has no choice. To Refuse the Call if followed in these circumstances is tantamount to suicide.

The bottom line is that the hero cannot achieve his or her full potential without accepting the Call and all the risks that come with it. That is not to say that the hero will succeed, for the road is long and treacherous. But simply getting on the road is a big big step. And the Powers That Be will try to thwart them every step of the way.