Just Keep Swimming!
A fun thing to try is to consider your favorite characters from movies or literature and think about what makes them resonate with you. This entertaining exercise might reveal to you a little more about yourself. What things make you laugh or cry? What values does that character reflect that attract you?
Thinking about these things can help you determine your own personal Core Values that make you tick. (See my Core Values series here.)
I just love Dory, from Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo. I sat down one day and sketched some of the things she says that were memorable to me.
Underneath her light-hearted and hilarious quotes actually lies a deep well of wisdom. I’d like to say she is my soulmate!
If I could only live life with her attitude, I think I could say it was a life lived with joy.
The most obvious and memorable proverb she is remembered for is, of course, “Just keep swimming!”
“Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you know what you’ve gotta do ?…Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”
Dory just keeps pressing on with optimism and determination with her objective in mind, (even if she forgets what that actually is sometimes.)
“You ask me where I’m going? I’ll tell you! P Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney. That’s where I’m going!”
“That’s it! We’re going in! P Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!”
She has an optimistic, even if a little naive, view that keeps her moving forward.
“We see the undertow, and then we say, ‘Let’s Go!’”
“Well, then, how are we gonna do that unless we give it a shot and hope for the best?”
Marlin: “How do you know something bad isn’t going to happen?” Dory: “I DON”T!”
She makes friends quickly, and has positive regard for everyone, even the ones who are not as likeable.
“Well, HI!” (she says this to a shark!)
“Well, I’m helping you!”
“Hi, I’m Dory!”
She might not actually even know from moment to moment what she is pressing on towards, but she does know she is helping her friend.
“Whose dad are we looking for? Oh, Right! DAAAD, hey, DAAAD!!!”
“I can read? That’s right! I CAN READ!”
Dory has just an overall joyful and positive disposition:
“Boing, Boing, Boing….Isn’t this fun?” (bouncing on top of poisonous jellyfish)
“Hey, Conscience. Am I dead?”
“The water is half empty? Really? I’d say it’s half full.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! Hey, relax. Take a deep breath.”
“Well, you can’t NEVER let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Harpo.”
“It’s the ocean, silly. We can’t be the only ones here.”
Dory holds on to her friends tightly and with fierce loyalty.
“Yes, trust. It’s what friends do.”
Even when she does eventually become afraid herself and has lost her way, she clings to her friends, knowing that is the lifeline back:
“No. No, you can’t… STOP. Please don’t go away. Please? No one’s ever stuck with me for so long before. And if you leave… if you leave… I just, I remember things better with you. I do, look. P. Sherman, forty-two… forty-two… I remember it, I do. It’s there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I… and I’m home. Please… I don’t want that to go away. I don’t want to forget.”
So, love your peeps with all your might, hold on to them, see the fun and joy in everything, press on, laugh at yourself, be a little naive, bounce on the jellyfish, take a deep breath, and….Just keep swimming! “
Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you know what you’ve gotta do ?…Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”
