The regal tang fish known as Dory in the Disney film Finding Nemo is one of my most favorite movie characters but for perhaps reasons not so obvious. You see Dory has a problem with memory and throughout the movie she is constantly rediscovering things as if for the first time. It’s quite frustrating for her companion Marlin (the father clown fish), but for the most part, no one else in the movie seemed to care. The characteristic that I love about Dory isn’t her seemingly oblivious persona, it’s that she is 100% present in every moment and embracing each situation with a spirit of curiosity and wonderment; she finds something great and positive in each new circumstance no matter how dire it may appear.
There are similarities between Dory and the character Lucy in the film 50 First Dates by Peter Segal. In the Segal film, Lucy (Drew Barrymore) suffers from amnesia, the result of an accident. Each morning she wakes up with a clean slate and no recollection of the day or even moments before. Each day is like the start of a new journey and she rediscovers people, places, and situations as if she never had experienced them before; in fact, in her mind she had not. You might believe that people in real life who suffer from such a condition are unfortunate, but their situation can teach us important lessons about living in the present.
The thing I adore about Dory is that she is unaffected by the myriad of challenges that are thrown in her way as she and her companion Marlin make a long and arduous trek across the ocean in search of Nemo. In fact, most of the time Dory doesn’t recall why she’s on the journey in the first place or remember whom it is they are searching for. In every moment, she sees possibilities instead of obstacles and she embraces each one with a touch of joy and fun. In one scene, they are trapped in the mouth of a whale with no obvious means of escape. As Marlin is panic-stricken at the prospect of becoming an appetizer, Dory is busily swimming back and worth in the surging water frolicking inside the whale’s mouth. She is simply making the best of a potentially tragic situation and she’s having a great time doing it.
When we face challenges in our lives, we often (almost instinctively) jump to a potential future state filled with disaster, gloom, and doom. We look at our situation and visualize nothing but the downside. The world begins to dim and we feel increasingly trapped by the growing darkness and begin to imagine all the evils lurking around corners. In this mental state, our creative thinking skills begin to shut down and we go into a defensive posture. It’s times like these that I recall Dory and her uncanny ability to find the good (and fun) in her situation and her infectious joy to capitalize on the present moment. Her spirit of curiosity and discovery enables her to take each situation at face value and explore more fully what lies before her. She looked with intention for something good instead of imagining herself into panic and despair. She never let a single moment go to waste regardless of her circumstances. For me, Dory epitomizes the importance of presence and embracing life. In fact, I keep a plastic figure of Dory in my office and it is a constant reminder to be living in the present moment and to have fun along the way. The phrase in the movie I return to time and again is Dory singing joyfully "keep swimming, keep swimming" and it brings me back to center.
In the Segal movie, Lucy finds herself surrounded by people who love her despite her situation, and in the end, she finds herself married to the man who grew to embrace and appreciate the gift of who she truly is including her amnesia. It reminds me that we don’t need to suffer amnesia to possess the spirit of discovery and wonder in each new moment. We simply need to look with curiosity and openness - take each moment at face value willing to embrace it with a fresh set of eyes. And when the darkness of imagining the worse starts to close in, it's time to remember to turn on the light before you can’t locate the switch, the light of discovery.
If it's been a while since you've seen either of these movies or if you never have, take the time to watch them. There's life lessons in both and you don't have to look too hard to find them.
Duane Grove is founder of Connect2Action, a strategy execution specialist at the intersection of employee engagement and executive leadership, igniting innovation as a lever to accelerate your growth. Follow Duane on Twitter @connect2action, his blog at connect2action.blogspot.com, or follow him on Google+ at connect2action@gmail.com and Facebook at duane@connect2action.com.
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