Groundhog Day

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Tracy Baranauskas, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

I really admire a funny lil’ groundhog my friend, Carin, recently told me about, as he is one incredibly tenacious fellow. Carin, however, is not as fond of him, since he has been an uninvited guest to her garden for quite some time!

After unsuccessfully strategizing for a few years to keep him out of her garden, Carin thought she finally found a solution this past spring by putting in a raised garden bed.  She put a lot of work into building it, and in planting and cultivating her garden.  Carin then surrounded her garden with an extremely high fence, determined to once and for all keep Mr. Groundhog out for the season!

And it seemed to work for quite some time, but now I’m wondering if he may have just been waiting for the tasty vegetables in Carin’s garden to grow and ripen to suit his palate. I say this because he scaled that tall fence and munched through just about everything in sight, literally in one evening’s meal!

Now, I must say, Carin was just as tenacious as the groundhog this year, and she replanted and rebuilt the garden fortress even higher. And again, it seemed to work for a while.

But then one evening, she heard her dog barking in the backyard and found the groundhog back inside her sacred garden!  He didn’t seem bothered by her dog at all, and so she had to turn the hose on him until he finally abandoned her green beans and high-tailed it out of there!

Carin is an extremely bright and determined person, but that groundhog was very difficult to outsmart!  She installed cameras in the garden and caught him multiple times back inside, feasting on its splendors.

It wasn’t until Carin added a roof to her garden that the groundhog finally stopped visiting. But she’s not really sure if that’s the real reason, or if he simply wasn’t interested in the vegetables that were left.  (Apparently, groundhogs don’t like tomatoes.)

“Every day feels like Groundhog Day.”

That’s something I’ve heard more than once from clients over the past six months, and they are not describing Carin’s version of “Groundhog Day”.

Instead, they are referring to the movie, “Groundhog Day”, and they are complaining about the monotony of their life.

If you may recall from the movie, the main character, played by Bill Murray, is a weatherman who discovers after covering a Groundhog Day story, that the same day repeats itself the next day, and then again, and again, and again.  Murray’s character then begins to fear that he is destined to spend the rest of his life doing the same things, in the same place, with the same people.

However, the part that these clients seem to have forgotten about, is that the weatherman eventually goes through a transformation. After a series of breakthroughs, he taps into more of his authentic self, and releases the compassion, creativity and love that had been trapped inside of him.

Murray’s character had no choice but to thoughtfully decide how to spend each day, because each day felt like a lifetime unto itself. He gradually learned to accept his circumstances and didn’t stay stuck in the denial and resentment he had been associating with it.  He ultimately began to view “winter” as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle that was holding him back.

Such an empowering message! It’s not our circumstances that define our day, but our thoughts and actions, regardless of our circumstances, that count.  We always get to decide how we are going to show up!

And so, if you start to feel like it’s “Groundhog Day”, I’d like to offer you some thoughts to consider…

What if, like Bill Murray’s character, you stopped worrying about your circumstances, and instead decided to view each day as an opportunity?

What if you were very intentional with your time?

And what if, like Carin’s groundhog, you…
Dreamt big?
Never took “no” for an answer?
Scaled over any obstacle that got in your way?
Didn’t stop until you reached your goal?
Life wouldn’t be monotonous, am I right?

And, here’s a few more thoughts to consider…

What goal connects you with the same kind of passion that Carin’s groundhog had with its mission to break into her garden?

And, what action can you intentionally add to each of your days to get you closer to achieving it?

Now, go ahead and talk about “Groundhog Day”. 

But from this day forward, instead of thinking about a dull, boring life, think about the determined, focused creature from Carin’s garden. 

And you know, get busy going after your dream!