Beliefs power our actions, so make it a positive one!

That our beliefs are all powerful, empowering us to become superheroes or keep us maimed and chained to our weaknesses. Nowhere is it shown more graphically than in Danny Boyle’s “127 hours”. Another masterpiece in the genre of “Joy of life conquers all”.

In this true tale of an ordinary man,. Aron Ralston, an inconsequential guy with a love for canyoneering. While on one of his treks through “ Blue John”: in Utah, a careless slip traps his arm between a rock and the canyon wall. And in the struggle to save himself, capsulated in a 2 hour movie we see Aron’s transformation to an extraordinary one; we see the birth of supreme courage.

Trapped, he uses physical force, cuss words to free himself, believing that will leverage him out of his predicament. Guess what ? the rock didn’t know Aron’s language J

All human might to resist nature’s course, resist the consequences of our folly, are only prolonging the time we spend trapped. Is that what is going to move the rock? Can the rock hear?

James Franco’s depiction of the helpless and dehydrated Aron fills you with disgust and awe. For once he faces upto reality that nobody in the universe can hear him, therefore to wait for rescue is pointless; b’coz he had chosen not to tell anybody before leaving. It takes him 24 hours to begin to accept the reality. Once he has faced his mistake, he starts looking at what he has that will keep him alive. And that is his experience as a mountaineer and the paraphernalia in his bag at that time. What sustains him is what he already has, not the regrets about the swiss knife, the bottle of Gatorade which he carelessly left behind. Defeated, he goes from negative, fatalistic beliefs about the rock being his destiny, his choice, to positive self talk.

So many times we give meaning to lifeless objects, unrelated events, imbuing them with more than necessary meaning, skirting challenges and ending up nowhere.

It is the vision of joy in the form of a child, a life he wants to create is what gives him the courage to cut his own arm. That was the greatest moment in the film, with whatever knife he has, getting rid of the arm which was keeping him stuck between the rock and the hard place, preventing him from living.

While the movie says “every second counts” for me what counts is the learning to get rid of what is becoming a hindrance and the power of Positive Self Talk in reaching our full potential.

You have to do today to get what you want for tomorrow !