Accepting what has always been?
Engin_Akyurt / Pixabay – Accepting what has always been?

Movies and television shows mimic a portion of real life. It’s the exciting drama, espionage, adventure, action, romance, etc. that capture our attention. We don’t have it in our real world. We live outside the realm of the characters and plots. There are a couple of shows that we can fit into without much difficulty.

The 1993 movie, Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell and the 1985-1992 television show, MacGyver, with Richard Dean Anderson. Yes, there is a current television show (2016 to present) with MacGyver played by Lucas Till.

We become the star in our own version of Groundhog Day – except we get older every day. We might change a few things to see what happens, but at the end of the day we know we will wake up tomorrow morning and everything will be the same – so, why fight it? The Groundhog Day scenario provides the safety, comfort, and security of knowing that nothing will surprise you tomorrow – no worry or real problems.

Groundhog Day is a lesson in futility – no matter what you do, there is no consequence to the choices you made in life. Why is that? One reason could be that you are where you are in life today because of all the knowledge you have acquired and the wisdom you have gleaned from it. You know a lot and have used it to the best of your ability, but you will progress no further – another Groundhog Day is waiting for you tomorrow.

MacGyver always managed to escape or cheat death by his cunning and imagination. His solutions were based on his knowledge, wisdom and his Swiss Army Knife – plus any other materials that could be found within fifteen feet or five minutes. He could improvise solutions to problems that seemed nearly impossible.

Throughout the television shows the viewer could hear MacGyver narrate a story from his childhood relating to the predicament that he was in at the current moment. He was grounded in good scientific and engineering basics that allowed him to visualize the right way out. Wouldn’t it be great if you were grounded in the basics that would allow you to make decisions daily that would solve impossible problems?

It’s a funny thing about the basics to improve life – most of us, the vast majority of us, are never taught them in school. Our parents don’t pass them along as part of our homeschooling. You could learn a core value or life skill and maybe never use it until the right moment.

Personal development, or self-improvement, is a life-long learning process. It’s not something to study for a couple or three years, get a degree in it and it’s over. It requires continual updating – incremental updating. In a job, you learn for several months before you are proficient in your new tasks, but in life, most of us never devote more than a few minutes to anything that will truly help us later in life.

I love the saying, amateurs practice till they get it right. Professionals practice till they can’t get it wrong. We become professionals living in our comfort zones. We rarely ever do anything wrong. However, the more successful among us leave their comfort zones and begin as amateurs in the next level of their lives.

From a financial perspective, they go from making five figures a year to six, seven, eight or more figures in a year. Business owners develop multiple sources of income with diversified holdings that last through depressing economic conditions. What is different between the two groups of people? Loving your comfort zone and living tomorrow as you did yesterday is what most of us do. A few manage to continually learn and take action and change their lives.

Are you more like Angus or Phil the weatherman?

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