10 lessons to learn from Secret life of Walter Mitty

Have you watched this movie? 

 The movie "The secret life of Walter mitty" was released in 2013. It was an adventure/comedy film. This is one of my favorite films on an adventure and I learned more lessons from this film. If you didn't watch this film, I recommend you to go watch it and come back, the blog can wait. A little bit spoiler ahead, the movie is about a man working as a negative asset manager, takes a daring adventure to find an asset that seems to be the last publication of the magazine company. Here are the things which I learned while watching the movie.

Beautiful things don't ask for attention

Out of all the dialogues in the movie, this word hit me the hardest. The character Sean O’Connell says this when he sees a beautiful snow leopard. The snow leopard is very rare to see and it won't show up that easily. Sometimes it's those things that are underrated, people who don't know them were beautiful. We don't know the value of a moment or a thing until we lose them. People who evolve with value, gratefulness don't seek attention. It's their character and value which draws attention. The character, the photographer Sean O’Connell, for him the snow leopard was beautiful. The snow leopard doesn't know that people are looking for it as it was the rarest of being in that atmosphere in that habitat. These beautiful things of what we call are around us everywhere They don't seek attention, they draw attention.

Appreciate the moment

In the same scene where the character Sean O’Connell sees a snow leopard, Walter asks "When are you gonna take it ?" he says "if I like moment, personally I don't have the distraction of the camera". He has taken photos of various events under various circumstances. But he didn't try the press the shutter of the camera. He didn't want to focus the camera on the subject of the "SNOW LEOPARD". This is because he knows it was this moment he has been waiting for the whole time. He doesn't want to distract himself from the moment by operating the camera. He was in the moment, appreciated the moment until it was long gone. In our life, we will be exposed to many things. It can either be in a happy way or a sad way. Whatever, we have to be in that moment and should appreciate the moment. We don't know whether the same situation that brought us happiness will happen again, we don't know whether we will see the same person we loved once again, we don't know whether we meet our friends who made us happy once again. Be in the moment, appreciate it once it's long gone.

If you have an opportunity take it, don't let it pass

There was a scene in which Walter is in a bar in Greenland. He was left with a photograph of a thumb with a unique ring, which Sean O’Connell left him a clue. He was searching for a person with the exact same thumb with the ring. He encounters a person in the bar who is a lot drunk and singing in the bar. Walter and the drunkard began to find and Walter soon finds that this is the person with the ring. The drunkard was the helicopter pilot who delivers packages to the boats and ships which crosses Greenland. He had met Sean O’Connell. He was about to deliver radio parts to a boat in which Sean O’Connell was once there. Walter needs information about Sean O’Connell and where he is if he can be in the boat. But had reluctant and afraid of going with the drunkard who he doesn't trust whether if he is a good pilot or not. He was thinking about some other way of safely reaching out to Sean O’Connell. The pilot was about to take off. If Walter missed this opportunity it would be much more difficult to reach out to Sean O’Connell. Suddenly he daydreams of the woman he loves who is singing "Major Tom". He began to realize he doesn't want to miss this opportunity and decided to board the helicopter and face whatever has to come. He reached the destination and finally the pilot is good at flying even being a drunkard.

Procrastination and being in the comfort zone

We all do this. Procrastination and always being in the comfort zone won't help us in any way. We only grow once we are out of the comfort zone. We learn more once we are out of the comfort zone, facing the toughest consequences. We do things by actually doing and not pretending to do them by procrastinating. Walter won't be the man he always wanted to be if he was going through the same day every day, thinking about doing instead of actually doing them. He has to take risks and do things in order to find the correct path he wanted to pursue.

Lose yourself to find yourself

We all don't know ourselves completely. There is much more of us to discover. Everyone is unique and all have our own strengths and weakness. We have to lose ourselves to situations, take up that daring risk and adventure we dreamed to take, do the things which really frighten us, be in situations we can't imagine in order to truly find who we are. For me, I liked to travel, travel solo, meet new people who I don't know before. It puts me into the situation to learn, correct myself and be aware of things that I don't know before. Walter mitty did the same, he didn't think about what happens next, instead, he did what he felt right to do. He took a daring adventure, figured out to solve situations that were out of his hands. He jumped out of the helicopter, did a long skateboard, went to Himalayas for the negative he wants.

The answer you are searching for is right in front of you

Walter travels too far, took big risks to find Sean O’Connell, and asks him about the negative asset which he and the life magazine wants. Sean O’Connell told him that it was right in the wallet which he gave Walter as a gift. Walter didn't go through that, instead, out of frustration of not finding Sean O’Connell he took a look at it dumped it in the trash can before. We also do the same. Sometimes the answer we looking for is right in front of us or we had lost it without knowing its value and taking it for granted. All we have to do is to search. Everything doesn't need to be complex always.

Overthinking won't help you at all

In a scene, Walter returns from Iceland with a long skateboard to give as a gift to the woman he loves who have a kid who loves skateboard. He rang the calling bell of her home and a man opened it. He asked for her and left the skateboard near the door and went away thinking that she loves another man. But in the end, she told that it was just the plumber who opened the door. He was being negative and overthinking held him up. We all tend to lose things of people by overthinking the situation which could not be possible in the first place. Most of the time situations were simple and we are the ones making the problems to be big.

Daydream won't help the reality

At the beginning of the movie Walter daydreams a lot. He dreams of the situation he wanted to be instead of actually being there. Even though daydreams bring us some happiness, it won't be the real happiness of doing things in reality. He wouldn't be the person he actually was in the end if he was just daydreaming all day. Instead of daydreaming, he chose to be in the moment. He made a change and he changed himself. We cant actually achieve the goals we wanted by just thinking about it and daydreaming

The world is big

We all have to understand that the world is really big. Walter soon realizes that how small his problems were in this huge world. The world is just not the home, our office, and our daily routine. There is much beyond the four walls. There is a lot of things to know about. Travel once in a while, you will feel different and discover much more of yourself. You will soon find out the problems which bother you aren't that big and easy to solve. You will force yourself on whom you truly wanted to become. You will collect beautiful memories and when you look back to the past, you won't regret it and will feel proud of who you are now.

The Quintessence of life

In the movie, everyone calls the last negative asset "Quintessence". Walter was searching for it the whole time. The negative is the last offline publication of the LIFE magazine and after that everything is going online. Sean O’Connell wanted it to be the best of all publications and he considers it to be one of the best photographs of his photos. Walter finally had the negative and he didn't look upon it of what image the negative actually contains. During the end after the publication was released, he took a look. It was him doing the job, preserving and making the images from the negative Sean O’Connell delivered. Walter was the one who brought the hard work and beautiful pictures of Sean O’Connell to life. It was Walter after all. He was the Quintessence of the LIFE magazine. In our life, you are the Quintessence. You are the Quintessence for who you truly are, who is true to yourself, giving the best you can. You are the Quintessence for being yourself.

Comment down your favorite scenes from the movie and your favorite dialogues.