We can get life lessons from anything — Ann. Ee. THING — we watch, read, hear, play with, eat, and do. Whether it’s what you learn about persistence from watching Gilligan’s Island, what you learn about love from listening to Jimi Hendrix, or what you learn about success from eating an artichoke, you can learn something from anything.
I’ve seen blog posts about how people have learned from the Brady Bunch, Jack Kerouac, the circus, Kurt Vonnegut (okay, I wrote that one), and even video games. I think there are lessons that can be gleaned from wherever we search for them.
So I’m writing this blog post to accomplish two goals: 1) to show you what I learned about some aspect of my life by applying some form of entertainment or recreation to it, and 2) to give other writers a fill-in-the-blank formula they can use to write their own blog posts about defining their own success metric.
(Note: I am NOT saying these kinds of blog posts are stupid. If you write them, keep writing them. I enjoy reading them. I’m just in a weird, goofy mood today.)
1) [SOMETHING ABOUT STARTING AT THE BEGINNING].
Anything you do has to start somewhere. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. You follow the Yellow Brick Road by starting at the beginning. Eat an elephant one bite at a time.
I learned from [MY FAVORITE MOVIE/FOOD/BOOK] that we’re not going to succeed if I just sit on my ass and dream about [SUCCESS METRIC]. I have to get off the [COUCH/DINING CHAIR/TOILET] if I want to achieve my dreams.
2) [SOMETHING ABOUT “IT’S GOING TO BE TOUGH.”]
Success is never easy. You have to work for the things you really want. Blah blah blah inspiration, blah blah blah perspiration. You’re never going to truly win the things you want, without hours and hours of practice before hand. Get knocked on your ass [X NUMBER] times, get up [X NUMBER + 1] times.
No one ever said this would be easy. (Okay, I did once, but I think I was drunk.) But nothing we ever truly love or excel at is. The [MAIN CHARACTER] of [BOOK/MOVIE/GRAPHIC NOVEL/EPIC FLIPBOOK MINI-SERIES] showed that there will be hurdles along the way, and that just like in life, the path to success will be fraught with [DANGER/HURDLES/TROLLS UNDER BRIDGES].
But if you can persevere, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
3) [SOMETHING ABOUT STICKING WITH IT.]
[SOME NUMBER] percent of success comes from just showing up. If I want to be better than everyone else, I just need to [SPORTS METAPHOR ABOUT EXECUTING FUNDAMENTALS].
It sounds easy, but it’s not. There are days that you’ll be practicing in the rain and snow. Days that you’re tired, that you want to quit, that you’re [JETTISONING TYPE OF BODILY FLUIDS] from every pore in your body.
That’s the time to bear down and work harder. Everyone hits that wall. No one is exempt from it. But what separates champions from quitters is that the champions never quit. Just like [HERO FROM FAVORITE MOVIE/BOOK/TV SHOW/COMPETITIVE EATING EVENT], you need to work through the [PAIN/JETTISONED FLUIDS/HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS] before you can finally see the finish line.
4) [SOMETHING ABOUT FINALLY WINNING.]
What [MY FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM THAT CAN’T PLAY FOR SHIT BUT FINALLY WON] taught me is that I need to play for the love of the game, and stick with my dream, because one day success will come. It may not come in the form of [INSERT SPORTS TROPHY/MUSIC AWARD/ACTING AWARD/SPELLING BEE RIBBON], but it will at least come in the form of doing something I love and getting paid for it. And finally learning that [REAL SUCCESS COMES FROM JOY OF LOVED ONES, NOT MONEY, BIG HOUSE, AND BLAH BLAH BLAH] comes from within.
But being able to rub my [TROPHY/AWARD/RIBBON] in my competitors’ faces is nice too.
So there you have it. The four most important lessons I learned from [MOVIE/BOOK/WWE CAGE MATCH]. I hope you got something out of it too.
Great post Erik! You need to make this a series and share several other formulas that bloggers/ authors/ journalists/ screen writers and playwrights and storytellers have been using since humans began communicating.
I am being serious here. Formulas are something professional content creators study. Most bloggers come to the medium out of pure passion for a subject and have zero knowledge of the formulas pros use to get themselves over creative blocks or to churn out money making content on a regular basis.
Yes formula’s can suck, but they can also be awesome. Once you know the rules or have the formula you can use them and break them at will instead of wandering around in the dark without a road map or a flashlight.
You have a huge winner here imo. HT/ to Jason Falls for sharing this on Google+.