Have you ever felt that you were reliving the same day over and over and over…? Have you ever been moving so slowly in the direction of your ideal life, that it felt like you were standing still or even going backwards?
Last Saturday was Groundhog day, and the good news for those of you that live in snowy places is — the groundhog did not see his shadow which means that its going to be an early spring.
Often on Groundhog day I am reminded of the 90’s movie by the same name. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character, Phil Conners wakes up every single day, reliving Ground Hog day over and over. And in case you are wondering how many days it would take Phil to do all the things in the movie — One estimate is 12,395 days or just under 34 years— He spent 34 years reliving Groundhog Day.
We can all relate to Ground Hog day. How often do you feel that you are living the same mundane day over, and over, and not making any progress? Maybe you continue waiting for the relationship of your dreams to no avail. Maybe, you are working really hard to be promoted in your job, and haven’t moved up at all . Maybe, you are working to learn a song and have been stuck learning the same 10 measures for the past month.
Regardless of what you are feeling, remember that in some sense everyone is stuck in a Ground Hog day – call it problems, challenges or whatever else you may, but we all have challenges we are trying to be better today than we were yesterday, and we all are in the struggle of creating our ideal life. Often times our “Ground Hog Day” is nothing but a reminder that we are human and having a human experience
Remember that even while you are stuck in your Ground Hog day, you can still choose to be happy. The end of that groundhog day will come. George Leonard in his book “Mastery” says that most often in our lives, we are in the plateau phases — Those phases of life that seem to stretch on for ever and feel like they have no end. It is in the plateaus that we learn some of our greatest lessons.
Usually until we learn the lesson that the particular phase of life is trying to teach us we do not advance. Have you ever noticed, how life will continue to teach you the same lessons repeatedly? If you do not learn the lesson in the beginning, the lessons will become infinitely harder and more painful.
Just like in the movie as we learn to enjoy the plateaus of life and even begin to challenge ourselves more our life becomes more enjoyable. Often times when a client comes to me they are in groundhog day in their life, something that feels impossible to them it could be as simple as get a date with the person of their dreams or a bit bigger like grow their company to a million dollars a year. Whatever it is, the answer is often the same. It’s beginning to play in the land of possibility, that’s how we turn things that seemed impossible into reality.
Often times we have excellent ideas and insights pop in our head of how to end our Ground Hog day and we don’t even play around with them to see what comes of them. It is often in the playing around and engaging with our ideas that they begin to develop and take life.
So next time you have ideas come to your head of how to get out of your ground hog day, give them a try, play around and see what happens.
Remember that your time on this earth is a gift, and when you engage in that moment, life is much more enjoyable. Even in the hard times take the opportunity to do the things that really make you come alive and bring you that child like joy. In the movie we see that when Phil gets engaged in life – he becomes happy. He learns to play piano, ice sculpt, speak French and countless other things.
What brings you joy? What do you want to create? What would you love to learn to do?
Stop waiting for your life just to happen, start doing what you love and start creating your ideal dream life that you can enjoy.
If you are struggling with ending or learning to enjoy your own Groundhog Day then contact me. I’d be happy to have a chat with you about creating your ideal life!