One of our family’s traditions is to gather around each Groundhog Day and watch the silly yet meaningful movie, Groundhog Day. We have done it for years. We will be doing it again tonight, camped out in front of the TV after eating our dinner made with GROUND beef. Silly? Yes. That’s alright, a little silly is good for the soul.
So is the movie, Groundhog Day. It is a fun one, and one that is chock full of life’s little lessons if you are willing to explore them.
Over at Creative Clarity Coaching, I am exploring how the Groundhog Day Plan can jumpstart your business success and get you out of STUCK. But here at LLI, I want to explore something a little more personal.
Egos and Happiness.
For anyone living under a mushroom, the main character in Groundhog Day is Phil Connors, a conceited, egocentric character whose world revolves around his own selfish needs and desires. He is stuck reliving Groundhog Day over and over again until he can get it right, a process that takes him a very long time. The subject of just how long he has been stuck is a controversial topic, ranging from months, to a decade and even ten thousand years.
What is more important, is that the process is slow and repetitive for Phil, until he learns one very important part of the process.
It isn’t about HIM.
Poor Phil, (Who isn’t a very nice character for most of the film,) is so stuck in his own needs, sorrow and anger that he can’t see beyond it to true happiness and love.
He wants love and attention, but has no idea how to achieve his goal. He tries manipulation, lies, theft, and even suicide to relieve him of his painfully repetitive existence, and none of it works. He becomes bitter, despondent and downright pathetic before finally reaching out for help. Finally with a suggestion from Rita that he spend his time trying to improve himself and make the world a better place, he starts the long process of changing his life.
He has to put his ego, selfish needs and whining away and focus on how to bring about positive change and beauty into the world before any improvement starts to happen at all. He learns to focus on helping others, and in doing so, finally learns how to help himself.
Are you ever guilty of Phil Connors type of behavior? Do you ever turn inward so much, focused on your stuff that you fail to see how you can serve others?
True happiness can be elusive when we are looking in the mirror. It is only by casting our focus outward, on the bigger picture, that we start to attract the kind of love and happiness we desired in the first place.
One of the things I love so much about this movie is that even a man as ego-driven, selfish and seemingly hopeless as Phil, has the power to make different choices and turn it all around. He is capable of change.
If he can do it, so can we. And it doesn’t have to take us years to do it either. We can start right now with one simple question.
How can you help someone else today?
