Lessons from a Movie: Ford v Ferrari

So, this is going to sound very ‘English Major’ of me, but I love finding the life-lessons in movies. Or maybe not even finding the lesson, but what did the movie get me to reflect on. I think I can safely blame this on my parents and my background as an English major. 

(Side note: I once wrote a paper comparing two Star Trek movies and how the villains reflected world events at the time. It was my favorite paper to write, I just watched the two movies!) 

Back to my previous thought, I can blame my parents because after movies we would always debrief on the car ride home. We talked about what we liked and what we thought about the movie (the Avengers series is a lovely conversation starter and I have all the thoughts about those, but to give you a snippet- I’m a big Iron Man fan).

Anyways, this weekend we went and saw Ford v Ferrari. It was really good and I was pleasantly surprised! To be honest, I only went because Micah really wanted to watch it and we hadn’t been to the movies in a super long time! It was a good movie with lots of “vroom vroom” moments but also a lot of good story line. Just a heads up, I go to the movies purely for entertainment so don’t expect a lot of critiques from me. I’m just there to enjoy the experience and watch a story unfold. Then I analyze the story line, but it’s focused on what did I gain from that movie.

Without further ado, here are my list of lessons from Ford v Ferrari!

1. Do the things you love! 

This is something that I could probably preach about for a long time, but just the highlights today! If you aren’t doing something you love, you probably aren’t very happy! For me, I love to read, write, and be active. If I’m not doing those things, I’m not at my best. Yes, I’m surviving, but life is meant to be lived, not just endured. 

For a while I had given up those three things (reading, writing, and being active). I slowly started incorporating reading back in, finally finishing school made that a whole lot easier! Schooling and trying to read for fun doesn’t mix well. Then I started adding back in being active. It’s taken multiple forms and various attempts, but now I work out 6 days a week and I love it! 

Writing has taken a lot longer to incorporate back in. I think before my post the other day, I hadn’t written (for fun, papers don’t count) since my college Creative Writing class. And yes, I knew I wanted to add it back in, but I kept giving myself excuses and telling myself I was too busy. Spoiler Alert: I wasn’t. I was just valuing things that didn’t matter over the thing I really enjoyed.

Yes, at first it was hard to find time to fit it all back in. But guys, it’s been so much more fun! You have to get through the hard times, but when you’re doing the things you love with the people you love, it’s so much easier! 

2. Make sure your loved ones understand what you love

The movie focuses on a guy who is struggling to make ends meet, but loves racing and working on cars. But it isn’t paying the bills and he talks to his wife about giving up racing. It’s a longer conversation in the movie, but his wife basically says that racing is a part of him. 

I know that no one will ever care about your dreams/passions as much as you do, but you still have to have your supporters out there! Without those people, it’s a whole lot easier to give up when it gets hard. And if movies are any indicator, things will get hard! 

3. Is it even worth it if it’s not hard?

Along that same vein, if it’s not hard, what’s the point? Yes, some days it will be easy to do what you need to do or live your dream. Other days, it’s going to be a real struggle bus. And guess what, that’s okay! You can do hard things, I promise! 

When I do my workouts, one of the trainers I follow always talks about how workouts have to be hard, otherwise what would we complain to our friends about? In all seriousness though, when I get through a workout that was hard and it pushed me, I want to tell my friends! It’s more of a, “Look what I was able to overcome and look what I did!” Yes, a slight brag, but it’s an amazing feeling to do something hard and look back and say, “I did that!”

When we are able to do hard things, we show ourselves that we can do it! It could be anything, folding laundry, finishing the project at work, doing that thing we keep talking about, etc. You just have to do it and guess what, you’ll be so glad you did!

4. Everything is always better with a British accent! 

Okay, I know, not really, but I had to throw it in there. I love accents :) 

(Also, I had no idea Christian Bale is actually British!)

To sum up:

• Do the things you love
• Make sure your loved ones understand what you love
• Is it even worth it if it’s not hard?

Go see Ford v Ferrari and let me know what lessons you find!

#FordVFerrari #lifelessons #mindest