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5 Inspirational Films To Help You Take On 2021

by Devin Caldwell

By every measure, 2020 was a challenging year, from the COVID-19 pandemic to extreme weather and wild politics. The new year, luckily, provides everyone with a fresh start. But when many students are still learning from home, workers are spending their days in Zoom meetings and every day feels like “Groundhog Day,” how can we find inspiration to move forward?

The answer? Watch a movie. Stories can inspire us and help us move forward when times are tough. For centuries, leaders have employed storytelling as a way to motivate teams. A teacher, for example, might explain to students how Albert Einstein had to fail in order to succeed.

There is no better time than the present to turn to stories for inspiration. Discover motivating messages in these movies:

1. Groundhog Day

This modern classic, starring Bill Murray, tells the tale of Phil Connors, a Pittsburgh weather forecaster who becomes trapped in a time loop while covering Groundhog Day ceremonies in Punxsutawney, Penn. Every day is Groundhog Day for Connors. While he enjoys the novelty of it at first, the repetitiveness taxes his patience. Connors learns to embrace his situation, however, learning new skills and taking time to know the people around him. Groundhog Day teaches us how important it is to slow down and enjoy the world around us - and that time takes care of everything.

2. Searching for Bobby Fischer

Whether watched on a big screen TV or a trusty rugged laptop, The Queen’s Gambit, a story about chess prodigy Beth Harmon set in the 1950s and streaming on Netflix, took the world by storm in late 2020. If you enjoyed that underdog tale, queue up Searching for Bobby Fischer, the 1993 film that unspools the true story of child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin. Told in part through his father’s point-of-view, Searching for Bobby Fischer inspires us to chart our own path and use the best of what we learn to achieve our goals.

3. The Rookie

Another underdog tale based on a true story, Disney’s 2002 film The Rookie introduces us to Jim Morris, a high school baseball coach who, years earlier, had the chance to make the big leagues before a shoulder injury ended his burgeoning career. Nearing middle age, on a bit of a lark, Morris decides to attend the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ open tryouts and winds up making the team. The film shows us how we can achieve our dreams at any age as long as we believe in ourselves.

4. Babe

In terms of inspirational films starring cute pigs, Babe and Charlotte’s Web are close cousins. Babe follows the story of an orphaned piglet won in a carnival game and raised by border collies on a farm. At first, it seems Babe may wind up living the life his parents did: fattened to adulthood and sold at market. But Babe shows Farmer Hoggett that he can herd sheep like the collies, eventually earning his keep and becoming the farmer’s personal companion. From Babe, we learn that our stories are never set and stone, and if we work hard, we can transform our lives.

5. Jojo Rabbit

The 2019 Academy Award Best Picture nominee will make you laugh, cry and fill your heart. The film focuses on young Jojo Rabbit, a German boy living through WWII who aspires to be a soldier like his father. To help him cope with his father’s death, he conjures a caricature of Hitler, played by director Taika Waititi, as his imaginary friend. He later learns his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their house. Intent on turning her in, the young woman instead teaches Jojo they are all the same inside. Similarly, Jojo Rabbit teaches us that if we open our minds, we can see bigger truths about our world.

Stories inspire us to pursue our dreams and achieve our goals. Support your friends and family through tough times by sharing your favorite films.