I ran into a post by Mary DeMuth where she described a simple test to help you find your one true thing, where your greatest passion aligns with the worlds greatest need. While I’m not sure if the exercise goes this far, it is a lot of fun and very insightful.
All you do is name your top three movies of all time and find a theme that ties them all together. This theme will supposedly be where your passion aligns with the worlds greatest need.
I did a little experiment and asked my friends and co-workers for their top three movies and we tried to come up with a resulting theme. We laughed a lot, but in most cases the results were pretty true to form.
There were some overlapping movies that multiple people mentioned…
Shawshak Redemption
Sound of Music
John Wayne
Wizard of Oz
My top three were…
Vertigo
Rear Window
Forrest Gump
For my three movies, the integrating themes are mystery, interesting people, facing fear head on, and the ability for ordinary people to do incredible things. Works pretty well with my personal development outlook.
I put together a quick download in MS Word that you can print out and pass out to your friends.
Download the Zip file and follow these simple instructions:
- Write your top three movies in the top boxes.
- Write down keywords or phrases from each movie in the box provided
- Write down the overarching themes in the combo box
- Write down a sentence that ties everything together.
Have fun. You’ll be amazed what a great conversation starter this is!
If you have trouble thinking of movies, the IMBD database will get you started.