I watched Yes Man with Jim Carrey last night. I really enjoyed the movie and recommend it. It did get me thinking though. Besides the obvious personal growth theme of the movie which I think is awesome. There were a couple other things that stood out for me.

Say Yes

First, let’s consider the main theme: saying yes to life’s opportunities. I think we can all use a reminder of this. It’s very easy to get caught up in the daily routine and shy away from anything that deviates from said routine. If you know anything about personal growth, you know that’s a bad thing. Change is good, it’s important, and it’s absolutely necessary for growth. Enough said.

You Can’t Audit Life

At one point early on, Carl (the main character) finds himself at a personal development seminar. Although the movie pokes fun at PD seminars in general, there was one line that really stood out for me. Carl, in trying to avoid attention claims that he’s “just auditing the course” to which the guru responds “You can’t audit life”. That is so true! There is no practice run, there is no do over, there is no “I’ll get it right next time” option. You are living your real life each and every day and you need to participate in that life.

Use Your Head

[Spoiler Warning]
Later on in the movie when the inevitable problems occur, Carl confronts the guru who tells him that he shouldn’t take the whole thing too seriously.
[/Spoiler Warning]

As with all growth opportunities in life, you need to use your head and consider how best to make any piece of advice work for you. It’s easy to get caught up in following someone else’s system. Everyone has good advice on what worked for them and it’s oh so tempting to do what they did with the hope that you’ll get the same results they did. Plain and simple, it doesn’t work that way. No matter how hard someone tries to capture the essence of their process, they will miss some of the bits that made the process work for them. We’re all unique individuals and no one system will work for everyone (or even anyone else).

Now I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try someone else’s system. But do it wisely. Try it out, then take the pieces that work for you and incorporate them into your life. For the parts that don’t seem to get you results, leave them be. Keep in mind that you may need to try something for awhile before you can be sure it doesn’t work for you. Personal growth is uncomfortable and you will struggle with change. Just try to be aware of the difference between persevering for the sake of growth and wasting your time on useless action.

Bottom Line

Growth is hard. It’s so much easier to sit around and watch TV instead of working towards your dreams (you have dreams, don’t you?) but the only thing sitting around leads to is more sitting around. To live the life of your dreams, you need to say yes to the opportunities life presents and then you need to take action. What action are you taking today?

- Dave