February 2nd is Groundhog Day
and it is just around the corner from this entry so allow me to celebrate one of my all time favourite movies. If I got to choose a series of movies to be part of a 'How To Have A Better Life On Planet Earth' collection I would definitely include Bill Murray's film, Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day (1993)
The romantic comedy Groundhog Day is about a self-centred weatherman named Phil (Bill Murray) that finds himself living the same day over and over again. The film is both hilarious and deeply insightful on how he learns to break out of his time loop by thinking more of others and by becoming a better person.
I remember seeing the movie when it was first released in 1993 and enjoyed it for it's comedy and intriguing twilight zone type story. I loved all the fun possibilities of redoing a day over and over again which is hilariously explored in the movie. Imagine eating whatever you wanted and being completely fearless with getting anything you desired. It wasn't until years later that I began to see Groundhog Day
in a new light that I was, in fact, stuck in my own loops of unpleasant life situations and relationships. I remember one day during a low period of my mid-life transition I happened to catch Groundhog Day
on TV. There was a scene in the movie that hit me hard for the first time. It's the scene where Bill Murray's character Phil was lying in bed utterly depressed with a complete sense of hopelessness. You could see he had finally surrendered to his situation and that his day may repeat over and over again forever. For me it was like a big mirror reflecting the dark state I was in. If you have ever felt lost like that then you know what I mean when I say there can be a sense of comfort witnessing someone else go through similar pains. You feel you are not alone in your situation and that can be a helpful source of energy. And any drop of energy can be gold when you feel you are at the end of your rope. So as the movie hero faces his challenges and learns how to rise above it, that too can become powerful fuel for finding your own strength to keep moving forward.
Celebrate Groundhog Day
by watching the movie. And ironically like it's story, repeat viewings of this movie can reveal so many of it's motivating gifts to you at different times of your life. Let it mirror the situations in your life that you feel caught in repeating over and over again. You will be reminded that no matter how bad things get that a day will come where everything will be okay."The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Albert Einstein
Emmanuel Lopez
www.motivatorman.com© Emmanuel Lopez 2007
1 comment:
I particularily liked this one (it helps that my father was born on Groundhog's day).
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