What in the world does this mean? For those of you who are unfamiliar (sorry for the spoiler), Mulan is a wonderful Disney film about a daughter taking her father’s place in the Chinese army, and she ends up saving all of China!
Wow! She’s the best! I bet that was super easy for her!….. WRONG. Mulan had to go through all sorts of trials, obstacles, and opposition. She was fighting an uphill battle from the very beginning.
I think that the struggle that Mulan faces, though very specific to her animated circumstance, is a good image for humanities struggle to keep going. Mulan perseveres through every problem that comes up, and just when she is about to lose all hope, she keeps going. The video below is the perfect summation of exactly how she “man-ed up” and kept going:
I know what you’re thinking… MAN THAT WAS AWESOME.
I agree. But ultimately, there’s a crucial experience that we see in this song and film. We see that Mulan and her comrades buckle down to become the “men” that they need to be. We see that they persevere through their struggles and continue on in their struggle to achieve what they are setting out to achieve.
We needMORE Mulan. How many times has something been too hard, too long, too whatever, and it was just easier to quit? How many times has someone or something told you that you couldn’t, shouldn’t, or wouldn’t do something, so you didn’t?
We needMORE Mulan because we need to embrace the struggle, the adversity, the opposition of life and work to every day overcome it. Mulan had all the odds against her, but instead of giving up she continued to do what she knew was right. All of her hard work did not just come out of nowhere though. She had a system set in place that helped her embrace the opposition that you too can adopt.
- Find a mentor
- Find a person in life that has lived life the way that you want to live. By having someone in place that has more experiences than you, the opportunity to have wisdom spoken into your every day is easily attainable. For Mulan, though it wasn’t specifically her choice, she had her commanding officer. He taught and lead in a way that pushed her to become who she needed to become. We all need a little nudge every once in a while.
- Don’t travel alone
- Adventures can be so much more successful with others traveling with you. The adventure of life is the same way. There are people that are around you all the time. These are your comrades. Your partners in crime. Whatever you want to call them. These are the people who will be working with you to overcome adversity directly. They will be the ones struggling right alongside you.
- Have an end goal
- Mulan and her friends aren’t just randomly trying to “be better” at being soldiers. They have specific skills, tasks, and goal markers to reach. We see it with the characters trying to climb the giant pole throughout the video. Just like them, we need to set up goal markers in order to tangibly gives ourselves a “light at the end of the tunnel” that is persevering. Have in mind what you are working through and set goals to reach. That way you aren’t just aimlessly trying to make it through struggle.
Mulan, though being a children’s film, teaches us the importance of trying, and trying, and trying, and trying again. We all needMORE Mulan in our lives. There is so much good that can come from each and every one of us if we were to pursue the things we believe to be right with dedication, direction, and companionship.
For me, I am working through persevering through some health problems. So, I have doctors speaking wisdom into my life of what needs to happen in order for me to be healthy. I have friends and family who are using this opportunity to become healthy and fit alongside me. I have an end goal in mind that gives me hope when I move closer and closer to achieving it. This, all-in-all, is the recipe for buckling down and working to overcome adversity. We needMORE Mulan. You needMORE Mulan. I needMORE Mulan.
P.S. If you are looking for a way to figure out your goals tangibly, and make them into a reality, our Nav Book is the thing you need. This free outline, which will be available soon, offers realistic ways in which you can begin to map a course of adventure for your life. Sign up to get the free Nav Book outline, when it’s available, by clicking the link here. Join the Adventure.
