It’s movie award season and the competition is tough this year! There are so many great ones, I figured the theme for the next few weeks can be nominated films. These will be in no particular order! I have no favorite yet and don’t make me choose…it’s too hard! Let’s start with Lady Bird, hot off its Golden Globe wins for Best Actress and Best Musical or Comedy and multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. (Slight spoilers ahead, so read cautiously if you haven’t seen it yet!)
The film’s success comes at no surprise to me because it is such a treat to watch. This is mostly due to the great performances by Saoirse Ronan, who plays Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, and Laurie Metcalf, who plays her mother, Marion McPherson. These two main characters are living representations of our own minds when dealing with change. Lady Bird, who wants to escape Sacramento and go to an out-of-state college, represents the side of ourselves that wants change. Marion McPherson, on the other hand, who wants Lady Bird to be financially realistic and stay near home, represents the side that wants to play it safe and protect from disappointment. We watch this friction comically play out on screen, but it’s also what we go through in our heads. We are at war with ourselves internally and it keeps us stuck, preventing us from making the changes we want. It reminds me of a few years ago, when I desperately wanted a career change. In order to do this, it meant going back to school and investing a lot of time and money into something I wasn’t 100% sure would work out. One side needed a change in order to feel fulfilled. The other side wanted to play it safe and not end up in another career I hated or worse, broke and homeless. My two sides were battling it out and I was going nowhere. To resolve this, both sides had to come to an understanding of the other’s needs. I was going to make this change, but to appease the Marion side, I did a little more research and compromised with a smarter, more doable option. My Lady Bird side understood and appreciated the protection and was able to move forward with confidence. This moment of realization for Lady Bird and Marion plays out beautifully in the film. I’ll let you discover that for yourself if you haven’t already, but I hope finding that middle ground will help make change possible for you, as well. With that, this eagle has landed! Until next time, consider these questions to help you take the leap and soar: What change are you hoping to make? What’s keeping you from making that change? What can you appreciate about that resistance? What can the resistance appreciate about your need to change? How can you come to a middle ground for both sides to move forward?
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I’ll never pass up an opportunity for musical theatre, and The Greatest Showman did not disappoint! (And yes, I currently have the album on repeat, belting it out in my car every moment I get). This film is a colorful, energized reminder to follow our dreams. Dreams that may seem impossible, but can come true if you believe in yourself and keep working at them, regardless of what gets in the way.
This means you might have to take some risks. Fear is the hardest obstacle to overcome, including fear of failure, fear of judgement or even fear of success to name a few. Each character in the movie faces a fear and takes a risk:
These are risks people take all the time in real life. I faced a fear of judgement to post this blog! It was a risk to put myself out there, but I realized I have nothing to lose if I do. Only time will tell where it takes me, but right now I'm learning so much more than if I didn't try. So, if you have a dream that you whole-heartedly believe in, face the fear, take the risk and go for it. You’ll learn, you’ll grow and you’ll never wonder “what if…”. That’s curtains for me! Until next time, consider these questions to help you take your own flying trapeze leap: What’s holding you back from achieving your dream? What risk do you have to take to get closer to your dream? What fear are you facing? What will you lose if you don’t face it? What will you gain if you do? I knew as soon as I started this blog that the first film to discuss would have to be the one that inspired the premise for my company. My favorite line from the whole movie is when Arthur (Eli Wallach) tells Iris (Kate Winslet), “you should be the leading lady in your own life”.
That line hit me from the very first time I watched this. It stayed in my subconscious and started to affect the way I lived life. I started to view my actions and reactions in different circumstances and started to ask “am I being the leading man in my life?” Or “is this what I would do as the leading man in my life?” When you ask yourself this question, you start to contemplate who you really want to be and, hopefully, start acting like the person you really want to be. Towards the end of the movie (spoiler alert…as if you haven’t seen this movie), Jasper (Rufus Sewell) shows up on Iris’s doorstep in LA. She seemingly swoons once again for him, but comes to here senses and finally realizes that she’s better than that. She cuts him out for good and now she can actually start a life where she can be happy. She had the gumption to take control of her own life and started to live like a leading lady. That’s all for today! Until next time, consider these questions to gain your own gumption: Are you being the leading man/woman in your own life? What would that look like? If not, what would need to change in order to be that? Is there a relationship in your life that is controlling your happiness? What would happen if it ended? What would happen if it continued? What would need to change so you’re in control of your happiness? Welcome and thanks for reading my first post…ever!
I’m so excited to give blogging a try. I’ve always wanted to write a blog, but writing came as easy to me as Monday morning after a week long vacation. As a leading “lifestyler” (yep, already coining new terms), I’m not about to let that stop me! To make it easier and fun for all, I decided to combine two things that I love: helping people and movies. Helping people achieve fulfilling lives is what inspired me to become a personal development coach. While training to become a coach (see my story here), I wanted a way to easily translate to others everything I was learning that improved my life. That’s where my love for movies comes in. I found that the character journeys in the movies we know, as well as the ones still to come, can help guide our thoughts and decisions in our own lives. This way, we can all go from ordinary to extraordinary just like them! Doesn’t that sound exciting? I look forward to seeing how this goes. I hope each post, though brief, can somehow be beneficial to your current life situation. Feel free to comment, ask questions and report results, both here and through email. I may like watching movie characters achieve their dreams, but I love hearing about real people doing it too. Thanks for joining me on this new and exciting journey. If nothing else, just enjoy my attempts to "creatively reimagine" each movie poster with myself in them. (Figure out the movie poster I'm referencing above, yet?) First post coming soon...stay tuned! |
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January 2019
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