The Wisdom of Groundhog Day

by Sandra Nelson
copyright 2004’

With that realization, Phil started to live each day as if it were his last. Throughout every repeated day he tried something new until he learned to change what he didn’t like and create the life of his choice. At one point his co-worker told him, “…you can’t plan a day like this,” to which Phil replied, “Well, you can, it just takes an awful lot of work.”

“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.” James Allen.

Phil was a rude, self-serving, grumpy man. In the movie he had a moment of clarity and decided to make some changes in his life. It’s the type of moment that is available to all of us if we honestly pay attention to our situation and the thoughts that brought us to where we are. Phil decided to take advantage of what he knew about each day and create the life he wanted.

“As you think, you travel: and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. You cannot escape the results of your thoughts.” James Allen

What did Phil know? He knew all of ‘his’ personal patterns of thoughts and behaviors that were being played out each Groundhog Day as well as the behavior of the people he connected with as he went about each day.

Phil made a conscious decision to change his life. Instead of taking, he decided to give. When he started paying attention to those around him, he realized what was important to them and used that information to do nice things for them. People responded to his kindness, which gave validation to his new behavior and in the process he learned to love himself, which opened the door to February 3rd, the day after Groundhog Day.

To those close to him, the changes in Phil’s life seemed like an overnight miracle. They didn’t see the personal work he went through. What may look like a radical, overnight change to some…a miracle…may actually be the results of years, or even lifetimes of personal and spiritual work.

So far, I have compared the movie, “Groundhog Day” to living with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. In fact, the lessons learned in this movie could be applied to living with any undesirable situation.

The Wisdom of Groundhog Day is the ability to change the aspects of your life that no longer serve you by applying the power of thought to create the life you desire. In his second book, As a Man Thinketh, author James Allen, 1864-1912, wrote, “Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions. But when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”