Groundhog Day: How Our Thoughts Can Change Our World

If you are getting caught in a repeating pattern, it might be time to stop running from your shadow

How we choose to conduct ourselves, and respond to what’s around us, is often the only thing we really have control over.KieferPix/Shutterstock

“All that we are arises with our thoughts.”—Buddha

It’s been hailed by business gurus, professors, psychologists, marriage counselors, and even scientists for the lessons it contains.

While, at first glance, it may appear to be just another Bill Murray comedy, the movie “Groundhog Day” is filled with some surprisingly deep messages—so much so that it has inspired philosophical discussions, and even college courses, on the meaning of life. Written by Danny Rubin and directed by Harold Ramis, this 1993 movie also sparked the interest of religious circles with its universal themes.

According to Ramis, “At first, I would get mail saying, ‘Oh, you must be a Christian, because the movie so beautifully expresses Christian belief.’ Then rabbis started calling from all over, saying they were preaching the film as their next sermon. And the Buddhists! Well, I knew they loved it, because my mother-in-law has lived in a Buddhist meditation center for 30 years and my wife lived there for 5 years.’”

So just what is it about “Groundhog Day” that has resonated with so many? Maybe it’s that we get a glimpse of another human being uncovering the true meaning of life, while, at the same time, showing us that the path to true salvation lies in letting go of our selfishness and truly thinking of others, something we instinctively know to be true.

The Surface Story

Imagine living the same day over—and over—and over, again. (After COVID lockdowns, it may not be such a stretch!)

That’s exactly the predicament Phil Connors, an egotistical, self-centered weatherman, with a desire to get ahead at any cost, finds himself in.

Phil begrudgingly heads to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where, along with his producer Rita and cameraman Larry, he goes to cover the Feb. 2 event of Groundhog Day. Phil believes the people of Punxsutawney to be simple-minded and pathetic, and the event to be ridiculous and beneath him. After half-heartedly covering the event, he’s eager to escape the small town, but finds himself trapped by a snowstorm.

The next morning, Phil awakens to the sound of his clock radio playing the same program, and to the same people walking to Gobbler’s Knob. Confused, Phil heads down the stairs of his bed-and-breakfast only to discover that everyone he encounters is saying and doing the exact same thing as yesterday.

As the day, and, ultimately, days, wear on, Phil discovers that he’s trapped, reliving the same despised day endlessly, in a sort of supernatural time loop.

Phil goes through a range of emotions, attitudes, and understandings. It’s as if he’s going through mini reincarnations of himself, only he can remember each one clearly.

Initially, he’s rude, cynical, and arrogant. He thinks only of himself, and takes advantage of others without giving it a second thought. Then, as he realizes there are no consequences for his actions, he happily indulges himself. From stealing money, to seducing women, to gorging on junk food, he attempts to satisfy his every desire.

But these desires eventually lose their appeal. Phil grows bored, and begins to fear that he may never escape his fate.

With no hope in sight, he becomes angry, depressed, and frustrated. Despondent, he then tries to kill himself—in every way he can think of. But no matter what he does, Phil awakens to the same radio host saying the same thing every morning. “OK, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s cold out there.” For Phil, it’s cold every single day. Phil has been trapped for years, possibly decades. Through it all, he tries to win over his producer Rita, a sweet, kind, and generous person. She is everything Phil is not. At first, Phil uses manipulation and deceit to try to seduce her, but she sees his true intentions, and he never succeeds.

Finally, in desperation, he confesses his plight to her. After spending the day with him, Rita has her own take on things, “Sometimes I wish I had a thousand lifetimes. I don’t know, Phil. Maybe it’s not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it.”

And suddenly, a lightbulb goes off.

Phil begins to see his situation as an opportunity. He becomes sincere as a reporter, an accomplished pianist, learns to speak fluent French, and even becomes a master ice sculptor. He starts thinking of others and his daily routine is laid out by a series of people he saves from tragedy: an elderly homeless man freezing in the cold, a boy falling boy from a tree, and the town’s mayor choking at a restaurant. And as Phil changes, he begins to genuinely care for Rita.

A Look at the Shadow

It’s no accident that Phil the weatherman shares a name with Phil the groundhog. And while the groundhog has a very small personal story, it’s known above all else for one thing—hiding from its shadow. It’s something many of us do.

This shadow symbolizes the hidden part of ourselves, the part that we don’t want others to see, the part that we may try to ignore or may even be hidden from us. It’s the thing we may flee by watching television, drinking, or keeping ourselves so busy we are never left alone with our thoughts. But seeing our shadow offers a chance to do something about it, and therein lies our hope. It is only by uncovering and acknowledging our shadow that we start to change the undesirable parts of ourselves.

When we look inside ourselves and examine our underlying motivation, we may find that we are full of things that don’t align with who we truly want to be.

For example, is our motive for helping another person genuine and pure? Or are we doing it because we want to be viewed in a positive light, or perhaps be rewarded in some way? Or maybe our motivation is to ultimately make things easier and more comfortable for ourselves.

These things can be hard to distinguish, because while, on the surface, we appear to be doing something good, we may be full of underlying intentions that are meant to serve ourselves. Self-deceit is often the hardest deceit to recognize.

To Change Your World, Change Yourself

As Phil begins to see that his external reality cannot be changed, he comes to realize that the only thing he can change is himself. But this realization only happens after a very long and rather painful process of surrendering to what is. As he comes to understand that his pursuits are meaningless, Phil finally lets go of his own self-interest, and begins to genuinely think of others.

While we all have the ability to make some changes in our lives, our external realities are also fixed in many ways. Though the details vary, most of us have a job or school we must go to, a family to tend to, we must sleep, and we must eat, among other things.

How we choose to conduct ourselves, and respond to what’s around us, is often the only thing we really have control over. And our thinking and our actions can have a powerful impact.

I once had a job where a co-worker and I sometimes butted heads. We both wanted to control certain aspects of things, and we would vie and compete to have things go our way. Eventually, I began to dislike going to work. I felt stuck and powerless as the same issues happened over and over again. Then, one day I thought, “I have to go to work either way, so I can go to work and be happy, or I can go to work and be miserable. It’s all up to me.”

With that thought, the situation changed. As I let go of my competitiveness and combativeness with her, and my concern for how others saw me in the office, and replaced it with a cooperative and pleasant demeanor, I was amazed at how quickly my surroundings changed.

Just like Phil, when I continually looked outward, blamed, and tried to change others, I was stuck in a loop of negative results. In an act of mindful intention, where I decided to focus on the good and let go of the bad, I experienced a moment of enlightenment, and began to look at life differently.

It’s All About Perspective

I’ve always found it interesting that two people can witness the same exact event, and walk away with two totally different stories about what had happened. Perhaps it’s because how we view the world has more to do with our perspectives and perceptions, and less to do with what goes on around us.

It’s a matter of where we place our attention, something known as mindfulness.

As Rubin points out, “Every person who Phil encountered contained within them an infinity of negative characteristics (boring, stupid, smelly, poor speller, etc.) and an infinity of positive ones (funny, wise, loyal, pretty, etc.). These are all within the same person. So, which characteristics does Phil pay attention to? Again, we shape our own experience of the world far more often than we realize.”

What we choose to focus on says a lot about who we are. In dealing with my co-worker, I realized that the things that annoyed me about her were actually reflections of things within myself—the shadow things that I didn’t like to look at, and that I really wasn’t aware of on the surface. It was an opportunity for me to examine and improve myself. Had I kept focusing on the need for her to change, rather than myself, I would have missed this opportunity for improvement.

By default, we usually take the perspective of wanting to have our difficulties end as soon as possible. We view them as bad things, in which case, we might ignore them, run away from them, respond unkindly toward others, harbor resentment, feel angry, or a host of other unhelpful responses.

When we come to understand that our greatest lessons come through our greatest hardships, we start to see our difficulties differently. When we stop pushing them away, in an attempt to avoid pain and feeling uncomfortable, and instead search our hearts to see where we need to improve, we discover the lesson we are meant to learn.

Redemption

Phil’s is a story of selflessness through hardship, good deeds bringing reward, and ultimately, a spiritual journey toward enlightenment.

As Phil comes to realize that he cannot do anything to help himself, he becomes interested in seeing if he can help others. His thoughts, values, attitudes, feelings, and behaviors all shift. With this pivotal change in his thinking, he chooses a path of redemption, and ultimately, frees himself from his own prison.

As Rubin says, “The absolute worst day of Phil’s life took place under the exact same conditions as the absolute best day of Phil’s life.” It’s not the town that changed, not the people, circumstances, or events. The only thing that changed is Phil, himself.

But to arrive there wasn’t easy. Phil had to learn that life is not something to be fought against or controlled, but yielded to, like a willow tree in a storm. Phil’s story is a process of change, but it took a certain type of change—the change of becoming a person who helps others without selfish pursuit.

The brilliance of the time loop is it proves that when all external factors are accounted for, and made null by remaining the same, the only factor that can truly bring about change is to change ourselves.

I read that when Harold Ramis was making the film, he originally imagined that it would take Phil 10,000 years of reliving the same day to get it right. Ultimately, Ramis settled on somewhere around 40 years.

None of us knows how many years we have to work on getting right. Perhaps there’s a theme or difficulty in your own life that keeps repeating, in its own never-ending time loop. And maybe, just maybe, it’s trying to get your attention, to give you an opportunity to look at yourself so you can get past what limits you today so you can become someone better tomorrow.

Don’t let it go to waste.