I hadn’t realised how much you can actually learn from some blockbuster movies – there are loads of them out there and not so long ago I posted about “Pay It Forward”.

Well last Sunday night on good old terrestrial TV they were showing “The Persuit Of Happyness”.

It’s a true story about a man’s journey through life to get the things he truly dreamed of and deeply believed in.

He defied all sorts. He lost his apartment, his wife, couldn’t sell a single thing that he had put all his savings into. It all looked pretty grim for him. He would stay overnight in shelters with his son to get him through an apprenticeship that wouldn’t pay a cent in salary and even then he wasn’t guarenteed a job in the end.

When the chips are that far down, the only thing he can do is start finding and thinking through ways for him to get back up. He works through a plan.

There is a great scene of him and his son on the basketball court. He realises what he has just said to his son and so corrects himself…

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you you can’t do something. If you’ve got a dream you have got to protect it.”

“People who can’t do something themselves will tell you you can’t do it”.

 ”If you want something you gotta get it – period”.

The huge number of sacrifices this guy makes to obtain his dream is extraordinary. It is selfishness to be perfectly honest. But it’s what has to be done to go and get what he wanted. These things do not and will not come easy.

Why? well if it did, what would you learn about it? What value would you put on the thing you got if it didn’t take much to get it?

If you have to make the sacrifices he did then you would truly value every single cent that came in through the door. It’s maybe not what you want to hear, but it’s true.

How many people or stories have you heard that have won the lottery and maintained their wealth? Do you think they learned how to keep hold of it? Do you think they understand the true value of the money?

2 valuable lessons I took away from this film

1. Persistence pays off when it’s for the right reasons
2. Happiness must be persued; it is not ours to have, no matter what.

I want to leave you with a little story his son tells in the movie…

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This man is drowning. A boat comes by and asks if he needs any help.

“No thanks, God will save me”. The boat disappears over the horizon leaving the man behind.

Another boat comes by a little later on and notices his struggle and also asks if he needed any help.

“No thanks, God will save me” and so the second boat goes on it’s way leaving the man struggling.

Sadly the man does eventually drown and goes to heaven. Once he got there he asks God

“Why didn’t you save me when I was drowning?” and God replies “I sent you 2 boats didn’t I?”

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Always look for the learning in everything you do; the good, the bad and the things that don’t work out as you had expected.

Ask yourself:

“What can I learn from this not working?”

“What else is there for me to learn?”

Until next time,

Antonia