1+1: Finding your Groundhog Day + 7 questions to discern your purpose

Here's one leadership idea and one resource I’ve found beneficial in the past two weeks:

1 idea: Finding your Groundhog Day

One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day—a film where Bill Murray’s character is condemned to repeat the same day again and again. At first, Murray fights the sentence, but eventually he embraces the gift of unlimited time to master new skills and help others in the community.

If you hear someone say they’re “having a Groundhog Day”, they’re probably not talking about becoming a concert-level pianist or saving kids who are falling from trees as Murray does. Odds are they feel stuck in a rut where every day seems exactly the same. In other words, the term "Groundhog Day" is a stand-in for a blah kind of existence.

But if you really were having a Groundhog Day—if you really were stuck in a repeating 24-hour loop—what would you want that day to look like?

My first thoughts go to a day of unrestricted freedom. I could eat my weight in Blue Bell ice cream and never gain a pound. I could play video games all day long and never lose my job. I could drive 150 mph, move to Prague, or skydive with no a parachute—all without lasting consequences. Come midnight, the world hits reset; the only thing different is my knowledge and experience.

But would that really be the path to the good life? If Groundhog Day teaches us anything, the answer is No. As the movie demonstrates, there’s a difference between our strongest desires and our deepest ones.

Our strongest desires are the ones that live closest to the surface, like our cravings for constant stimulation or instant gratification. But even though these urges clamor for our attention, they aren’t our deepest desires. They aren’t the things that we crave on the most fundamental level. You can tell this by the way we respond after these desires are sated. No matter how many Oreos you eat or Law and Order episodes you binge, you’re rarely left feeling a deep sense of joy and contentment.

The same is true for Murray’s repeating day. Despite wooing the woman he desired and stealing more money than he could spend in 24 hours, he remained restless. It wasn’t until he tapped into his deepest desires—like mastery of a craft, connection to others, and service to a greater cause—that he found joy.

These deep desires are polite—they rarely interrupt your conversation to steal away your attention—but they are resilient, persistent aches in each of us that whisper quietly at us until we attend to them.

My Groundhog Day would begin with prayer, writing, then cooking breakfast with my daughter. I’d connect with a friend for lunch and host a family for dinner. I’d enjoy a walk with my wife and a nap in the hammock. I’d continue to master my craft while also remaining attentive and connected to the people around me. That’s a day I think I could repeat without getting bored.

That’s my Groundhog Day. What’s yours?

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• What are your strongest desires? Your deepest ones?

• If you were going to build a day based on your deepest desires, what would it look like?

• How could you take one small step toward that perfect day today?

1 resource: 7 questions to discern your purpose

For many leaders, discerning your deepest desires is hard because you’ve chased your strongest desires for so long. That’s why I find these 7 questions from Dan Pink to be so valuable. These questions and examples will get you thinking more deeply about why you’re on this planet and what a truly good life looks like for you.

PS: It’s been one of those days…