'Groundhog Day' gets better every time
Andie McDowell and Bill Murray star in the classic film ‘Groundhog Day.’
A teacher once asked her students to alphabetize the following words:
water
green
craft
steak
apple
Here’s what one child wrote down:
aertw
eegnr
acfrt
aekst
aelpp
Interesting, huh?
So what can we learn from that experiment?
We all interpret the world differently. We all view each day through our own unique filters, whether it’s narcissism, previous abuse, religion, politics, or how we were raised. So even though we all get the same 24 hours, no two people see those 86,400 seconds exactly alike. We use them quite differently, too.
Which brings me to “Groundhog Day” …
No, not the annual tradition that took place on Tuesday in Punxsutawney. I’m referring to the movie starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell.
I watched again it Tuesday night because it was, well, Groundhog Day.
It still made me laugh like the first time I saw it in 1993. Out loud. More than a few times.
And once again, it made me think deeply about our existence on this planet.
“What if you were stuck in one place, doing the same thing over and over, and none of it mattered?”
That’s the question smart-aleck Pittsburgh weatherman Phil Connors poses to his drinking buddies as they close down the bar in a local bowling alley.
I may be going out on a big limb here, but I’m guessing you’ve asked that same question yourself. Maybe you’re stuck in a job you hate, but it pays too well to quit. Maybe you’re stuck in a marriage that fell apart years ago, but you refuse to do the work needed to restore it. Maybe you’ve promised yourself you’ll get in shape, take that class, schedule the doctor’s visit, or reach out to your adult child who hasn’t spoken to you in years.
But it’s just so dang easy to show up at the office and “put in the time.”
It’s just so dang easy to grab another donut.
It’s just so dang easy to take another pill to mask your symptoms.
It’s just so dang easy to pour a drink, put your feet up and see what’s streaming tonight.
It’s just so dang easy to … drift.
And years later we wonder, how in the world did we get HERE?
Which brings me to this thought from poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe …
“Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.”
That sounds awful, doesn’t it? Yet most of us have felt this way to a certain degree. We climb into bed at night, turn off the light, then lay there with eyes wide open, regretting much of what happened that day.
Could have.
Should have.
Would have.
Didn’t.
And that’s exactly what Phil Connors begins to experience when he realizes he’s trapped in a rodent-inspired time warp. He lives out Groundhog Day over and over again, but to everyone else it’s as if the previous day never happened.
Initially, Phil deals with the boredom and frustration of “no tomorrow” by binging on a cocktail of debauchery, sexual escapades and deceit. No tomorrow, no consequences, right?
Despair soon sets in as he discovers the futility of self-centered living. So he tries to take his own life. Over and over again.
Then he eventually learns to love. He learns to serve. He learns to take his eyes off his own shadow. He learns there’s great delight in meeting the needs of others. He learns that “no tomorrow” means creating better todays.
“There’s an element of truth to the fact that we are repeating the same day over and over again,” says Danny Rubin, who wrote the movie’s script. “Phil is presented with the exact same day and the very first time he’s presented with it, it’s probably the worst day of his life. And, by the end of the movie, we see that it’s the exact same day but somehow this is probably the best day of his life.”
That’s so true.
We can continue to learn, adapt, and grow wiser as we age. Or we can simply exist and live the exact same year many times over.
So as the credits rolled, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to get a fresh start like that? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a do-over as we see the sun rise each morning?
If you’ve read this far, you already know the answer.
It’s called “today.”
And as the film teaches us so powerfully, there really is no tomorrow.
Now let’s go live like it.
(Tim Kolodziej is the author of this piece and founder of EnspireU.com. When he’s not behind a laptop or presenting to corporate clients, he can be found inside a gym helping young athletes create their own unique future — one rep at a time. Click here to connect with him by email.)