How “Groundhog Day” helps bring meaning to life

Have you ever had the feeling that every day is the same, that you’re aimlessly living each day on automatic pilot, and nothing ever changes? If so, that’s often referred to as having a “Groundhog Day” experience. The term comes from the 1993 movie, “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Like many of you, we saw the movie many years ago and remembered it as being funny and kind of quirky.

Because February 2 is Groundhog Day, we decided to watch the movie again just for the fun of it. This time we saw it with ‘new eyes’. What a difference time and life experience made in how we viewed the movie the second time around! We’ll explain more about that later.

We encourage you to watch “Groundhog Day”, whether you’ve seen it before, or not. We’ll briefly recap the storyline of the movie. Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, is a self-absorbed, arrogant weatherman assigned to cover the annual Groundhog Day festival in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on February 2. This is where the groundhog predicts, depending on whether he sees his shadow, or not, if there’ll be six more weeks of winter or an early spring. Phil resents being there because he feels he’s too good for this assignment.

After the festival, Phil can’t leave town because of a snowstorm and is forced to stay overnight. When he wakes up the next morning, he relives the same day as before. He’s caught in a time loop. This happens day after day after day. No matter what Phil does, nothing seemingly changes. The magic of the movie is watching the gradual character transformation of Phil, and what he learns that finally enables him to escape from the time loop.

In the time since the movie came out, it has been fascinating to how positively it has been reviewed over the last many years. It’s been used as a teaching tool by all the major religions as a metaphor. Many professors and psychologists have used it as a teaching tool. Several prominent movie reviewers even go so far as to say that “Groundhog Day” is one of the best movies ever made. They’re drawn to the theme of a cursed man who gained redemption. They liken it to “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens where Ebenezer Scrooge, after being visited by a series of ghosts, transforms from a bitter, miserly person to a kind, philanthropic individual.

In watching the movie this time, it was interesting for us to see how Phil’s transformation goes through several stages. At the start of the movie, Phil belittles all around him. He feels he’s too good for his current job. He’s living his life in the future where he will finally be recognized for the superior talent he feels he has.

The next stage occurs when he finds himself caught in a time loop where he can no longer dream about his future. This is because he has to constantly live the present day over, and over, and over again. In this stage he goes through several phases.  First, Phil becomes very hedonistic when he realizes that he can do whatever he wants, and there won’t be any consequences for his actions. His main goal is to seek pleasure and satisfy his desires.

When he eventually realizes that constantly living for pleasure’s sake is not very fulfilling and has no true value, he goes to the next phase. This is where he believes that life has no meaning and is pointless. He then tries different ways to end his life, all without success. Strange as it may seem, there are many comedic moments during this time as he realizes dying is not the way out.

Finally, he realizes nothing has worked in his attempt to change his circumstances. Then he starts to pursue things that have meaning and that give real value to his life. Instead of always thinking about himself, he starts doing random acts of kindness for others. He learns that when he lives a life of creativity, compassion and contribution is when he feels the most grateful and fulfilled. This learning not only becomes the key to Phil’s freedom from the time loop, it also becomes a roadmap on how to live life each day.

What about you? Do you sometimes feel like you’re caught in a time loop and don’t feel fulfilled? If so, remember, just like Phil, we can’t always control what happens in our life, but we can control how we react, so we give our life meaning and purpose.

Chanhassen MN residents, Doug and Lynn Nodland are success coaches and owners of The Balance Center in Excelsior. Contact them at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2023 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.