In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, has been wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and is serving time in prison. One day he is chatting outside with another inmate, Red, who is played by Morgan Freeman. Red is in prison for life for murder and by his own admissions, has become institutionalized. Andy talks about what he wants to do when he gets out of prison and Red discourages him from thinking about what life will be like on the outside. Andy wants to go to Mexico and Red tells him that Mexico is far away and that Andy is in prison and that’s just the way it is. Andy says, “Yeah, right, that’s the way it is. It’s down there and I’m in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, you know? Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
When things feel hopeless and we feel stuck, it can be easy to give up and just make peace with where we are in life, even if we don’t like it. But the truth is, you never know when the tide will turn. It is usually when we are on the brink of giving up, something miraculous happens.
Andy Dufresne teaches us that even in the moments of our deepest despair, we can keep busy one of two ways: spending our time accepting our fate that causes us to feel like we are dying inside, or we can focus all that energy and effort on working towards something that we want – even if it’s a long shot.
You never know when the odds will change and be in your favor, so keep going and don’t give up hope. If you are a fan of the show The Amazing Race, we see this theme play out in every episode. During the legs of the race, contestants get delayed or get held up at different roadblocks and detours and sometimes even get lost on their way to the pit stop. You always keep racing because you never really know if you are in last place and in danger of being sent home. You might be ahead of someone who got lost. If you just believe and accept that you are going home, you won’t put forth the maximum energy and effort that might keep you in the game.
Another way to look at this quote is, are the things that you are doing daily support your dreams and the life you say you want? Or are they keeping you stagnant or moving you away from that? Either way our time is passing, and we are here for a limited time. How are you spending your time?
