Recommended Movies to Inspire RISK takers and goal achievers
Goal setting - How many of you set goals? How many of you have set goals in the past and have had limited or no success achieving them?
Goal setting is much more than simply putting together a wish list of things we want to achieve. Its taking a RISK to put a dream out there and move toward achieving it.
There are 4 keys to having success with goal setting:
- 1. Language used in describing the goal and your self talk
- 2. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Realistic, Timed)
- 3. Visualization process to imagine the goal already out into your future
- 4. Taking positive action toward achieving your goals
Sometimes taking a RISK doesn't feel so good. Its new territory and there may be doubt that you will succeed. The following movies are all about real life RISK takers who had a goal/dream that they wanted to achieve. They kept moving forward despite the fact that all odds were against them to succeed. When doubt rose up inside of them, defeat seemed imminent or the goal or dream seemed too impossible, they kept going and did it anyway. Some wanted to give up, some thought the task was too hard and wondered if they would succeed, some had no other choice but to make it happen. The one thing they have in common is they are all ordinary people that produced extraordinary results in their lives.
When you doubt yourself or if you just need some inspiration to boost your belief about what can be done when you choose to keep moving forward no matter what; watch these movies.
Movies about real life RISK takers:
Erin Brockovich, Freedom Writers, Hidalgo, Invincible, Norma Rae, Rudy, Men of Honor, Miracle, Pursuit of Happyness, Rudy.
All true stories, all very different other than one thing, they had a dream of a better way of life or to achieve something that seemed unachievable. They aligned their belief system and took a RISK even in the face of failure. These movies are all available on DVD.
Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck. This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss. While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. What she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she digs deeper, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her law firm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Freedom Writers
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school. Hilary Swank stars in this gripping story of inner city kids raised on drive-by shootings and hard-core attitude - and the teacher who gives them the one thing they need most: a voice of their own. Dropped into the free-fire zone of a school torn by violence and racial tension, teacher Erin Gruwell battles an uncaring system in a fight to make the classroom matter in her students lives. Now, telling their own stories, and hearing the stories of others, a group of supposedly "unteachable" teens will discover the power of tolerance, reclaim their shattered lives, and change their world.
Hidalgo
Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire--a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian desert--was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy sheik invited an American, Frank T. Hopkins, and his horse to enter the race for the first time. During the course of his career, Hopkins was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the U.S. cavalry--and had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known. The Sheik puts his claim to the test, pitting the American cowboy and his mustang, Hidalgo, against the world's greatest Arabian horses and Bedouin riders--some of whom are determined to prevent a foreigner from finishing the race. For Frank, the Ocean of Fire becomes not only a matter of pride and honor, but a race for his very survival as he and his horse attempt the impossible.
Invincible
In the summer of 1976, 30-year old Vince Papale is having a tough run of luck. He's been working as a supply teacher for two days a week but has just found out that his job has been eliminated because of budget cuts. His wife gives up on him saying he'll never amount to anything and asks for a divorce. He works as a bartender and plays football with his friends. When the the new coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Dick Vermeil, announces that he will hold open tryouts for the team, Vince reluctantly decides to give a try. In an almost unheard of feat, he manages to make the team and enjoyed a three year career as a professional football player. Based on a true story.
The story ultimately revolves around two "men of honor"; their relationship, their individual and joint failures and triumphs. Carl Brashear is determined to be the first African American Navy Diver in a time where racism is strife. Leslie Sunday is his embittered trainer, determined to see him fail. Fate, challenges and circumstances eventually draw these two men together in a tale of turbulence and ultimately triumph.
Carl Brashear, born in 1931 to sharecroppers, joins the Navy and, after watching the heroics of Billy Sunday, the White son of a sharecropper, determines to become the Navy's first African-American diver. At the Bayonne, N.J., divers' training camp, Sunday is his instructor, and Brasher must endure hazing verging on the murderous. With Sunday and the camp's commander dead set against Brashear's graduating, his physical skills and steely determination, which he got from his father, see him through. Carl and Billy's paths cross again when each needs rehabilitation one from an injury, the other from bitterness. Their wives look on with awe and frustration.
Miracle
The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team's coach, Herb Brooks, took a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning from a distraction from world events. With the world watching the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels' now famous question, to the millions viewing at home: Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
Norma Rae
Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. Like her father, her mother and most of her friends, she works at the Henley mill, spinning and weaving cloth as the days go by without much apparent purpose. This concern about the working conditions gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Her "nothing special" life changes when she and her coworkers meet Reuben, a dedicated, smart-mouthed labor organizer down from New York to teach the Henley crew about solidarity in a place where workers and owners alike think "union" and "trouble" are synonymous. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
Pursuit of Happyness
Based on a true story about a man named Christopher Gardner. Gardner has invested heavily in a device known as a "Bone Density scanner". He feels like he has made these devices. However, they do not sell as they are marginally better than the current technology at a much higher price. On top of that, one of these does not work. As Gardner tries to figure out on how to fix the faulty one and sell the others, his wife leaves him, he loses his house, his bank account, and credit cards. Forced to live out in the streets with his son, Gardner is now desperate to find a steady job; he takes on a job as a stockbroker, but before he can receive pay, he needs to go through 6 months of training, and to sell his devices.
Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.
