Recently some one I know posed this question to a study group I was in; “would you like your life to be a sitcom or a movie”. Puzzled, several people went in search of the answer, producing various results and arguments for why they had made their particular choice even though they hadn’t fully understood the question, whilst others asked each other what the question meant!

So it got me thinking; what is the difference? I don’t have a favourite sitcom but my shortlist (its really quite long!) might look like this:

My favourite Movies are numerous and have to include:

I then started working out my criteria for selection; dramatic performance, charisma of the lead part, how good the Director was, did it get an award? Was it funny?

Once done I realized I hadn’t answered my first question – what is the difference? Frank Spencer, the lead character in Some Mothers do’av ‘em was a total disaster in the sitcom. Every week he started a project and had a real ambition for getting it done confident in the knowledge that this was the thing that would turn his life around. A new job, decorating the house, this was going to be the start of a new life. Of course we all know what happened in each episode, somehow he always managed to mess it up and he arrived right back where he started or even worse off than before!

Movies are very different, you see most movies (and there are some exceptions) have a very different outcome at the end compared to the start. You see the good guys generally prevail, starting out the underdogs and finishing up the hero, often with a happy ending. By virtue of their efforts in prevailing against overwhelming odds or circumstances, by going the extra mile, by careful planning and setting themselves a goal or a target their lives turn out very different. Instead of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome they worked out what needed changing and learnt from the mistakes they or others had made and applied their learning going forward.

Perhaps its time to turn your life into a movie now.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *