A long time ago I decided to stop watching TV. It’s not hard to realize that nowadays TV is full of garbage and bad news. Watching it is not good for your cognitive skills and keeps you in a sedentary mood. I’m still a fan of good films and some series on Netflix but that’s it.
In fact, today I just had some free time and I engaged 90 minutes in my laptop watching a very funny kid’s movie called “Finding Dory”.
Holly molly! One of the best movies for kids I have seen. Not only because it’s quite funny but also because it teaches very valuable lessons for life. Yeah! I know, it is just a movie but if you read between lines it is much more than that.
The entire movie tells the story about a Dory; a wide-eyed, blue tang fish who suffers from memory loss, and during the plot of the movie she is trying to find her family after losing them years ago. I don’t want to summarize the movie but I just want to talk about the main lesson of the movie.
“Don’t overthink and follow your instincts”
That’s basically the lesson of the movie. If you watch the movie and think about it, you will realize that Dory’s memory loss is actually something good for her; because it keeps her away of overthinking, overanalyzing problems, bad memories, frustration, sadness, anger, etc. She is always forgetting everything and the only thing she can do is move on and try a different way. Because “there’s always another way”- according to Dory.
I never thought a kid’s movie could have such a wonderful and powerful message. I love it.
The way most of the people live their lives is always thinking and worrying. We believe that we are thinking of a solution for a problem but most of the time, we aren’t, because… well, there is no solution and even if we already have a solution; we still think about the problem, we milked it the entire day. We take decisions based on our reasoning and we make plans. Oh yeah, we make plans! I’m not saying it’s bad to make plans but we get so obsessed with them that if something goes wrong, we freaked out. But if we ask ourselves, “What would Dory do?” We would understand that sometimes more action and less thinking is better and bring more results.
But if we ask ourselves, “What would Dory do?”; we would understand that sometimes more action and less thinking is better and brings more benefits.
Life is not a plan and it will never work as a plan. You can plan your entire life and work hard to follow it; but life will show you in a very hard way, that you can’t do it. Life is easier and simpler than that. You make a goal (or goals) and a plan (or plans) to reach those goals, but you keep your plans flexible, life is not something you can control, everything is constantly changing and sometimes life situations force us to change the route. It’s ok!, As long as we reach our goals, doesn’t matter if the plan is the same we established or not. In the movie, Dory has no plans because even if she makes a plan, she won’t remember it. She just acts according to her instinct and things always work well for her. Even if we don’t reach our goals, that’s not necessarily something bad, sometimes life has something better for us and if we put resistance to accept, it will be harder for us to move on and receive a bigger reward
Life is easier and simpler than that. You can make a goal (or goals) and a plan (or plans) to reach those goals, but you keep your plans flexible, life is not something you can control, everything is constantly changing and sometimes life situations force us to modify the route. It’s ok!, As long as we reach our goals, doesn’t matter if the plan is the same we established or not. In the movie, Dory has no plans because even if she makes a plan, she won’t remember it. She just acts according to her instinct and things always work well for her. Even if we don’t reach our goals, that’s not necessarily something bad, sometimes life has something better for us and if we put resistance to accept, it will be harder for us to move on and receive a bigger reward.
What is so great about a plan?
Dory’s lighthearted, impulsive nature is part of her charm, and time after time, she finds herself in some tricky situations because of it. She makes decisions on the fly while trusting her gut, and is always ready for adventure. She never worries about knowing what’s next, but always continues on and trusts that everything will work out. Even if we don’t reach our goals, that’s not necessarily bad, many times life has something better for us and if we put resistance to accept that, it will be harder for us to move on and receive it.
I can hear some skeptical people saying: “Com’ on, that’s just a movie. It’s not real”. In fact, it is more real than what you can imagine and I’ll prove it right now.
Tell me one time in your life when things got really bad and you didn’t find your way out, you weren’t well at the end. None! I’m sure you can’t tell me one single situation because that would mean you are dead, in jail, or homeless. If you are reading this, you are not homeless, not in jail and certainly not dead. If you want to write about how someone you loved died, let me tell you that you aren’t the first one nor the last one; and even so, you will be fine. If you want to write about a very difficult situation you are living now, let me tell you that you are still alive and if you don’t die… Congrats! you will be fine.
You have always found your way after all. And I can guarantee you, that it would have been the same outcome without the overthinking and worrying. When our life is really at risk, when we are facing a life or death situation our mind has no time to overthink or worry; something more powerful and deeper than our mind takes immediate control and acts.
Our mind is a very powerful tool, but it can also be our most destructive enemy. If you learn to control it, you can create amazing things with it, but if you can’t control it, you will steal happiness from yourself and it can sink you in very dark emotions.
From now on, be like Dory: don’t overthink, forget bad situations, don’t overanalyze, act and follow your instincts, move on and enjoy your life.
Years ago, I read one of the best pieces of advice I have followed in my life:
“If it’s not going to matter in 5 years; don’t spend more than 5 minutes thinking about it”
Just keep swimming.
Everyone can learn something from Dory’s famous motto. No matter how difficult or hopeless a situation may seem, rather than panicking or dwelling on the past, it is best to just keep moving forward with heads held high. Staying positive is key in any journey, whether physical or emotional. It is a imperative lesson for anyone hoping to make progress–it just happens to be taught best by a blue, animated fish.
I encourage you right now, to watch the movie on Netflix and adopt Dory’s lifestyle. I’m pretty sure Dory’s Philosophy will bring multiple benefits to your life.
Let me know what do you think about the movie in the comments and more importantly, what do you think about the life lesson?
