Inception

Remember inception? That huge blockbuster that came out in 2010 that essentially drove you crazy by leaving you with a tonne of unanswered questions? I’m talking about that stupid spinning top where we were left questioning everything and essentially mistrusting Cobb’s sanity itself? Yeah, that one. I’m still not over it.

One of the many strengths the movie carries with it is that you can extract many lessons from it. Sure, one is to question your very consciousness.  Question whether you might indeed be living in a Matrix but we’ll scoot right over that. One lesson that I drew from Inception as I re-watched it last night, with a good six years on me since the first time I watched it, was the simple fact that our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideas are valuable and powerful. Or as Cobb puts it far more elegantly, they are ‘resilient and highly contagious’.

Inception inspired Wanderlust

How many times have you looked at landscapes on Pinterest, Read blogs, watched vlogs from people who travel regularly and were instantly filled with wanderlust? Has it ever died down when you reminded yourself that money and responsibilities are tying you down? Probably not, because it is a genuine desire. A powerful yearning and it is probably one of the most natural things for humanity to seek knowledge and experience. Why else do you think Eve took a bite? Whether you realise it or not, by the time that you recognise the fact that you want to see more than what’s in your immediate surroundings, it is already an idea that is ‘fully formed, fully understood, and sticks’ (Cobb). This is regardless of whether you have lain down any practical actions to get started.

Even if you ended up not really ‘getting’ the movie and it’s probably not about wonderlust, but it is in part, for me. It taught me that your desires and thoughts are valuable and worth protecting as well as implementing. This is because they are rooted so deeply within you, maybe even three levels deep, and unless you quench that thirst, it’s probably just going to grow exponentially until it disfigures into regret.

Gain knowledge

Knowledge is the highest currency that is available to us. You can either learn it studiously through reading and research or you can go out and experience. Needless to say, a mix of both would equip you with the most reliable and valid form of knowledge. It’d enable you to develop a worldly view. If you see your subconscious the way inception presents it as with the use of incredible visuals, you will find that it empowers your very thoughts. If we go by what Cobb teaches us, that ‘we create and perceive our world simultaneously’, your mind could be broadened much further. Further, than you could ever have imagined simply by seeing more. Greater landscapes, greater architecture, greater awareness; greater mind.

You won’t know what you will find in your travels, but you are probably at a point in your life where your restrictions are at an all-time low. The exams are out of the way. Your path is wide open and you are free to do whatever you want. Whatever you find and learn while exploring, it could determine your very future.  ‘The smallest seed of an idea can grow, it can grow to define (…) you’ (Cobb).