A few years ago, a friend of mine asked to borrow the movie, “Groundhog Day,” from me to watch on Groundhog Day. This idea tickled me, and I thought this was a good idea after hearing it. So, like any good idea I come across, I adopted it for myself, as well. Since then, I will typically watch, “Groundhog Day,” every year on (or around) February 2nd. Watching this movie repeatedly feels very on point to the movie’s essence. That being said, I would not be willing to watch this movie so frequently if I did not find it to be truly outstanding and capture life wisdom like few other movies ever have. Here are a couple of lessons I believe we can all learn from this wonderful film:
1) You shape your reality by creating perspective with your attitude – In the bowling alley scene, the other patron points out to Phil how some people see the beer glass as half full and others half empty and Phil seems like one of those, “half-empty kind of guys.” I see this as the primary message of this movie. In all our lives, we have a moment by moment choice to decide on how we react to our experiences in the world. We get a choice to look for the beauty that exists all around in everyday life, or to focus on how so many things could be better. Keeping a gratitude journal is healthy way to remind yourself of everything good in our lives day to day. I heard AJ Jacobs describe how grateful he is for modern medicine on a podcast when his book, “Thanks a Thousand,” (his quest to thank everyone in the chain responsible for his morning cup of coffee) was coming out. He described how only a few generations ago in human history, surgery was being done without anesthesia! Can you imagine having to experience something like that? Modern times bring us so many advantages that humans have never had before in tens of thousands of years and most of us largely take these things for granted. I, for one, am incredibly grateful for air conditioning, automobiles, airplanes, refrigeration, telephones, internet, credit cards, glasses, vulcanized rubber, domesticated cats, baseball and hummingbird feeders, amongst many other modern luxuries I experience everyday. Could I focus on how somebody has it better than me? Sure, that’s possible, but not helpful. I am not saying by any means that we should be eschewing societal progress, we should continue to move forward and I appreciate all the people who focus on this so much these days. What I am advocating for is to stop and smell the roses any chance you get, because they are intoxicating and you have the opportunity to smell them whenever you walk by. Trust me, you will feel better after smelling some roses!
2) How you treat other people really affects them and you have the power to make the difference in other people’s lives – One of the best things I have noticed about this movie that I did not really notice upon my first few viewings is the stark difference in how the character actors react to Phil at the beginning and by the end. My favorite example is the guy he meets at the top of the stairs. In their first encounter, Phil is snarky and this guy kind of misses the sarcasm and is left a bit confused. The second day, he’s left genuinely frightened when Phil is confused and pushes him up against the wall and threatens him. Towards the end, after Phil has made the metamorphosis from self-centered, egomaniacal jerk to genuine nice guy, trying to go out of his way to be kind to others, his new exuberance for life leaves this character beaming from the poetry and warm interaction. There are similar changes with all the characters Phil interacts with: “Needle-nose Ned,” is labeled as, “a giant leech,” after the first meeting Phil has and on the last day, tells Rita, “This is the best day of my life,” merely because Phil purchased a bunch of insurance from him. In the context of resetting the day everyday, this would have cost Phil nothing, but brought an incredible amount of joy to Ned. We all have choices like this everyday in real life. We can hold doors open for our fellow humans, let people merge in front of us on the 405 and say thank you when people show us such social courtesies or hand us the cup of coffee we ordered. Are we required to do these things? No. But we make the world a little bit better to live in with every choice we make to be kind to each other. Again, it costs us nothing, and spreads joy to humanity. To me, this is an easy choice to make. The other characters also respond more positively once Phil changes his behavior and acts kind. Think about how you can affect others and make good choices for humanity!
This got a bit wordy, so… TO BE CONTINUED…