The Secret Life Of Jeremy Watkin

Having just watched the movie The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, I find myself in a bit of a pensive mood this evening.  The movie follows a chronic day dreamer on the verge of being laid off from his desk job.  In search of the missing negatives for the cover photo for the final issue of LIFE magazine, he heads to Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan, jumping out of helicopters, climbing mountains, racing erupting volcanos, and fending off sharks.  Somewhere in there, his crazy day dreams become reality and he musters the courage to ask a woman on a date.

I’m guessing if you read the title of this post, you’ve only read to the second paragraph because you’re in search of some real dirt.  I’m sorry to disappoint.  I’m just a 12.95 years married, father of 2 boys (3 by next week), owner of two geriatric dogs, who runs about 30 miles a week, wishes he read more, practiced music more, prayed more, weighed 5 pounds less, and at times finds himself consumed by the quest to create something awesome at Phone.com, and caring way too much about social media.  I guess that’s me in a nutshell slash run-on sentence.

So what does Walter Mitty mean for me?  There are days where I would love nothing more than to strap on a backpack and head off into the wilderness, walking from sun up to sun down.  Or perhaps I’ll just get up one morning and instead of stopping at six miles, I’ll go fifty.  Or maybe I’ll drop my savings on plane tickets to a remote dream vacation with my wife.  In the movie, Walter Mitty does all of that and yet he returns home to live his life.

Here’s my takeaway.  Perhaps today I can spend a little less time on my smartphone and more time focusing on the people right in front of me.  I’m challenged to embrace both the times of harmony and conflict rather than wishing for the latter to go by faster.  As a husband, father, etc, to wish that the challenging times go faster is to kiss precious minutes goodbye.  Perhaps today, when I speak with a customer, I’ll take a few extra moments to be real — to slow down and make a real connection rather than wishing for 4:30pm to get here faster.

I leave you with a great scene from the end of the movie City Slickers.  Picture a dialog between Mitch (Billy Crystal) and his wife:

Barbara Robbins: You know Mitch? I’ve been thinking. If you really hate your job, why don’t you just get out of there?

Mitch Robbins: No, I’m just going to do it better. I’m going to do everything better. (source)

Here’s to finding adventure in the every day!

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