“Groundhog Day” is a 1999 film starring Bill Murray. It tells us of the story of Phil Connors, a Weatherman sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the coming out of the Groundhog. Phil doesn’t want to go; not the least reason being he thinks he is better than to be sent to such a silly assignment. The story unfolds and Phil is trapped in Punxsutawney reliving the same day over and over. He is the only person who remembers the previous days; everyone else in town is “reset” to the way they were before the Groundhog days.
When the phrase “Groundhog Day” is used in the modern vernacular it is usually used to refer to a day which seems like every previous one a person has experienced in life. People are bored by their daily life, their job, or other things, and repeat this process day after day. Apart from groundhog Day being one of my favourite movies, and being incredibly funny, I think it holds insights to happiness in life.
When we look at Phil in Punxsutawney initially we see a narcissistic, self-obsessed individual who thinks the world should revolve around him. After being trapped for a while he tries to form a relationship with his producer, Rita(played by Andi MacDowell). However she rebuffs his attempts at romance. Phil initially attempts to resolve this by learning things about her on dates, and then using the gathered information on subsequent days. This doesn’t work and Phil gets depressed, starts drinking, hanging out with the wrong crowd, and evening trying to escape through committing suicide.
If we view Groundhog Day as a scientific experiment it becomes very interesting. This is because everything is constant except the subject being examined.
• The environment is constant. Phil wakes up in the same town every morning.
• People’s behaviour is constant. The same people are there every day and if approached in the same way re-act in the same way they did before.
• The timeline is constant. Every day; same as before.
In fact the only variable in the equation becomes Phil’s behaviour. How he chooses to act and respond determines how his environment changes around him.
Phil works out in the end that the only way to escape from Groundhog Day is to become a better person. He works on developing himself. He also takes a genuine interest in other people and helps them with their problems (even though this may be completely pointless as the day is reset overnight). He realises that in order to make progress he must work on himself. There is nothing that he can change is his environment or the people around him.
How often are we confronted by problems and we think to ourselves that if only circumstances were better, or family, friends, customers, suppliers wouldn’t do those nasty things to us? This line of thinking makes us victims and robs us of the power to respond.
So what lessons are in there for us?
1. Whilst it is easy to blame our circumstances for what is happening to us, or how the people around us behave the reality is blaming them really achieves nothing. Blaming someone transfers all of our power over to those people. But you do have the power to respond to the things that happen to you. More importantly though we can shape our environment based on our behaviour.
2. Happiness revolves around the service to others. Phil antidote to his self-indulgence was to focus on helping other people solve their problems (fixing the old lady’s tyre, saving the child from falling from the tree, buying insurance from an old schoolmate). Becoming self-less turned him into the person Rita could fall in love with. It wasn’t pursuit of things, career, or money that made Phil a better person. It was giving of himself for a greater good, for other people that made Phil a better person.
3. Sometimes we wish we could do things without consequence. Phil initially tries to take advantage of it (steals, tries to get laid, eat whatever he sees, manipulate people). Soon (?) he realises doing what you want all the time becomes boring. Life requires effort, sincerity, and authenticity.
4. The only way out is through. Neither quick fixes or suicide let Phil escape. The only way out was personal growth.
Sometimes we’re all stuck in our own Groundhog Day. We’re facing the same issues and challenges. Consider however if those issues are actually of our own making by us making the same mistakes over and over again? Conversely can our challenges can be addressed if we change our own behaviour? Unlike Phil we don’t have all of eternity to face our situation. Go, and escape from your Groundhog Day!
Footnote: For all those wondering, Punxsutawney, and Phil the Groundhog are actually real, although the majority of the movie wasn’t actually filmed there.
Author: Jurgen Steinert