Mindfulness and Personal Transformation

Do you feel stuck in life? Inwardly you keep repeating the same thoughts, outwardly you keep repeating the same routine, and on and on a cycle of unhappy disappointment goes.

To break the cycle, maybe what you need to do is watch a film that has become synonymous with this kind of stuck-ness — Groundhog Day — which my guest says contains the roadmap to escaping a life lived on autopilot. His name is Paul Hannam, he’s the author of The Wisdom of Groundhog Day: How to Improve Your Life One Day at a Time, and today on the show, Paul unpacks the deeper philosophical layers of what’s considered one of the best movies of all time. Paul explains how the film teaches us that to escape the ruts of what he calls the “Groundhog Day condition,” we must first make an inner change where we learn to approach life in a more grateful, present-focused, engaged way. From there, we can embrace the film’s unique strategy for change, which is to experiment with doing something new every day, thereby refining and improving our lives through the process of trial, error, and progressive improvement.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• Groundhog Day
• AoM Article: Getting Over the Horror of the Same Old Thing
• AoM article on Nietzche’s idea of eternal return 
• Sunday Firesides: Eternity Is Now
• Sunday Firesides: Care, But Don’t Care
• Sunday Firesides: Life Is a Skill — Practice It
• AoM Podcast #676: Stop Living on Autopilot and Take Responsibility for Your Life
• AoM Article: The Right and Wrong Way to Journal

Connect With Paul Hannam

• Paul’s Website

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