Life Lessons from TV

Last weekend I watched the movie “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” with my daughters and the HBO series “Hung” with my husband. Amazingly both movies had the same common message / lesson for me. The main characters struggle to gain recognition, status and fame. In Wimpy Kid, Greg is starting his first year in middle school and he wants to make a good impression, he wants to be popular and is determined to do it by any means necessary. In Hung, Tonya wants to be respected, powerful and rich. She tries to obtain her recognition by being a “pimp”, which is so far from who she really is. Both characters try everything and anything that they’ve seen work for other “popular” people. However, no matter what they do it just doesn’t work for them. As a matter of fact it moves them further from their goals and they lose friends and self-respect along the way. The lesson: just be yourself, stand for what is right and promote your own unique talents and how they can be used for a greater good. Don’t compromise your personal beliefs, values and style to get ahead. So whether your 7 years old or 40 something it seems we all need to learn the same lesson.