TAKE IT FROM THE ROBINSONS

Everyone who knows me knows that Disney was and is a large part of my life. Disney has made me who I am today. Well, God did and is doing that but with a big help from Disney. In fact, Disney is probably the reason I was so receptive to the notion of a higher power out there. Through it, I learnt to believe in something greater than myself. I learnt that all things are possible through faith, hope and a little pixie dust (which I equal to prayer). The way I see it, Disney set the tone…sort of primed me to believe in God. And now I do and I’ve experienced him and there’s no turning back for me. Disney taught me to be strong, to be brave, to never give up; that believing in impossible things and chasing after them like they’re possible makes them possible. It taught me that if you lie, your nose grows a mile long (Pinocchio), that beneath the most hideous, hardened beast could beat a heart of gold (beauty and the beast), that sometimes you stand out because you’re meant to (Tarzan, jungle book), that sometimes to find your purpose in life, you must venture out of the known into the unknown, even if it means turning a tail into legs (Little mermaid), that gender doesn’t limit your possibilities (Mulan), that growing up doesn’t necessarily mean letting our imagination die (peter pan), that ‘Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten’ (Lilo and stitch), that girls can be the heroes too (Mulan, Frozen, Brave etc.), that you must pursue your dreams even if you hit a detour like say, getting turned into a frog (princess and the frog).

And the list goes on. Disney is one of the most influential platforms in the world. I can only hope to one day be quarter as influential. But, I digress…

This post focuses on the 2007 Disney movie ‘Meet the Robinsons’. The movie focuses on Lewis, a poor orphan boy who could never quite meet the standard of any parents looking to adopt because he was different and because he kept scaring them away with his failed inventions. This boy later grows up to become Cornelius Robinson, a highly successful inventor and creator of Robinson Industries. Lewis/ Cornelius’s motto throughout the movie is ‘Keep moving forward’

KEEP MOVING FORWARD

I think this is something most people don’t bother to think about. I mean, I probably wasn’t the only one who saw that movie but we all just watched it without gaining anything but some momentary enjoyment. I’m almost ashamed that it didn’t even occur to me what this could mean until yesterday. It’s nearly eight years since I watched it.

That statement means no dwelling on setbacks. Every setback should be a stepping stone towards success. See it like this. You have a problem and statistically, there are 100 possible solutions. You try one and fail. Rather than stopping to rant at everyone, looking for where best to place the blame, or moping about or binge eating to deal with the disappointment (me), why not get started on the 99 other solutions. With every setback, you’re narrowing down the possible solutions thus every setback is actually a step closer towards success. The more you fail, the closer you are to winning. It now depends on how badly you want the problem solved. Most of us give up after just one try, leaving the other 99 ways untried. Pity isn’t it?

“You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors… What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‘Great, I got another one out of the way’… Keep moving forward.” ~ Joel Osteen

The phrase talks about developing a positive attitude. Because the truth is that we can’t change what has already happened. We can’t change the fact that we have been hurt or betrayed or disappointed. We can decide how it affects our future. Must we keep looking back, dwelling on old hurts, constantly ruminating and filling with anger, reliving the scenes in our head, or can we just keep moving forward. Brush it off and march onward. Not so easy, I know. But we must try. We must decide to leave the past in the past. We have no influence over the past. We do however have a great influence on the future. So rather that waste resources on such a futile effort as the past, we might as well direct those resources towards solving the problems that have arose as a result of that significant event in the past.

So have you been a slum lately? Maybe you just had a bad breakup, just lost your job, were told to repeat a class? It’s time to gather the pieces of your life. What’s done is done.

You probably won’t get the girl/ guy back (and you probably shouldn’t. You must have broken up for a reason). What you can do is take better care of yourself, eat better, exercise, get a closet upgrade, acquire new skills, maybe learn a new language, and meet new people. If there were issues with you that put strain on your previous relationships, maybe lying or trust issues then work on those. You’ll definitely find love again.

You’ll likely not get the job back. But you can figure out what was wrong and fix it. If the problem was from you then work on yourself. If you were a little sloppy before, work on being more organized, Lazy? Work on being more hard working. If the problem was just budget cuts, then work on acquiring more skills, getting more experience, in form of internship or whatever and work on making yourself an asset to the next company you will work with. And then polish up your CV and resume and meet as many companies as you can. Remember if you fail again and again and don’t give up, eventually you’ll get one.

So you were asked to repeat. Big deal. You can’t dwell on it. Get over the initial shock; get over the embarrassment of seeing your former classmates. You were asked to repeat and they know it. Move on from that. You’ve got this second chance to make it. You already know the course content- you’ve done it once before. Well, now is your chance to really cement your understanding of what you’ve known before. Read harder than you read before. Maybe change your reading methods. Are you normally a crammer? This might be the time to switch to listening during classes and actually understanding. I repeated a class before when I was much younger. Someone told me that it was only a second chance. It changed my whole outlook of life. And in 2013, when I failed JAMB, I knew not to waste any time with ‘If only’. I gathered my books, locked myself in my room and read for diploma.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

 Commit to keep moving forward. Comment.

Peace.