The Croods is a movie about a prehistoric family that uses a strategy of risk avoidance to survive as long as possible. Basically, the family is limited to hunt and hide in a cave. However, one day the cave is destroyed and the family is forced to travel and face many dangers in order to preserve the life of its members.
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| In this mindset, for example, you will not want to take a risk like changing a feature of your personality because you fear failure and you don't want to wear yourself down. |
Putting aside the fantasy and the entertaining comedy of this movie, I think the lessons it offers are important ones. "The Croods" at the beginning of the film, exemplify a type of belief very harmful for us. This belief is the idea that once you have reached a comfortable position in your life, the best you can do from there is to preserve that situation, avoiding risks and dangerous decisions at all costs.
For example, once you've defined your personality and your interests, this belief dictates that you must try to keep the benefits and ignore your weaknesses. Similarly, if you have a good job or if you are happy with your study conditions and current housing, you focus on the comforts and the advantages of those situations. This way, little by little, you start to settle and the fear of losing all that stuff becomes very powerful, so you won't try anything new, and you will start to avoid opportunities that involve risks.
In other words, you find a comfortable cave and you cling to it. Your expectations and your goals begin to slowly rotate around that comfort zone: your cave.
In a situation like this, you start to talk to yourself in a conformist way. You say to yourself that after all, your personality is a very good one and it's OK to have some deficiencies. Of course, nobody is perfect, it is fine to have some flaws. Besides, you are happy with who you are, and the people who are around are also comfortable with your personality.
In this thinking process, you are self-limiting because it is easier for you to save your efforts in trying to remove a defect (and maybe make a fool in front of others). It is easier because you won't suffer the emotional effects of failure and you won't lose your time and energy. Anyway, "others have to accept the way you are".
Even when you want something new in your life, the fear of failure limits you. You need to be sure that things will go just right. As if you were Tarzan in the jungle: You have to grab a vine before releasing the other. You have to always be in an area without hazard, without risk. That way you think you can move slowly but safely.
Psychology has found that when we take risks our fear of losing is stronger than our expectation of obtaining some profit. This means that we prefer not to lose the little we have instead of taking unnecessary risks and losing even what we do not have. This is the case of "The Croods". To them, fear is good because it makes them to always step on firm ground, and to always limit their goals to only those things that involve minimal risk.
Well, it may be so in the case of some people, but we are forgetting that these people also have some virtues that should learn, like courage and bravery, which involves the inevitable act of launching ourselves into the unknown.
You can read a slighlity different version of this post, in spanish, here: Inspiración de película: Los Croods
In this thinking process, you are self-limiting because it is easier for you to save your efforts in trying to remove a defect (and maybe make a fool in front of others). It is easier because you won't suffer the emotional effects of failure and you won't lose your time and energy. Anyway, "others have to accept the way you are".
Even when you want something new in your life, the fear of failure limits you. You need to be sure that things will go just right. As if you were Tarzan in the jungle: You have to grab a vine before releasing the other. You have to always be in an area without hazard, without risk. That way you think you can move slowly but safely.
Psychology has found that when we take risks our fear of losing is stronger than our expectation of obtaining some profit. This means that we prefer not to lose the little we have instead of taking unnecessary risks and losing even what we do not have. This is the case of "The Croods". To them, fear is good because it makes them to always step on firm ground, and to always limit their goals to only those things that involve minimal risk.
Fear, in these cases, is a life strategy. It drives our decisions and the way we live. Ultimately, as the Croods thought at the beginning of the movie, it costs a lot to take risks. It costs a lot to face difficult chasms. We're fine as we are. The only thing that would force us to move back and find new things is when our cave completely destroyed, as in the film, otherwise we will do everything in our power to continue in the same path.We believe that risk-takers are less rational, who can not properly evaluate the pros and cons of a decision that involves uncertainty and possible irreparable damage. We even may think that these people are disorganized, that they do not know what they want, that they are not able to enjoy what they already have because they always want more and therefore lose great opportunities and benefits.
Well, it may be so in the case of some people, but we are forgetting that these people also have some virtues that should learn, like courage and bravery, which involves the inevitable act of launching ourselves into the unknown.
You can read a slighlity different version of this post, in spanish, here: Inspiración de película: Los Croods
#YourChangeIsNow
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