Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned From the Rocky Movies

“It’s not how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”  - Rocky

If you have not seen Rocky, stop reading and go put it on right this minute. It’s a great movie. It won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1976. If you’re not on your feet cheering at the end, someone ought to take your pulse because you clearly have no heart. Like most sequels, the Rocky movies got sillier and sillier as time went on but, the last one, “Rocky Balboa” is pretty good, especially in the life-lessons department. 

I’m a huge fan of the Rocky movies, even if I do acknowledge their shortcomings from a purely cinematic perspective. That’s what I’m writing about today. Life lessons from the Rocky movies. Stop giggling, I’m completely serious. If you watch the movies, you’ll see what I mean.

Define success on your own terms

In the first movie, Rocky’s goal was to go the distance with the heavyweight champion. No one had ever done it and that was all Rocky needed to accomplish to feel successful. By the end of the movie, he has achieved his goal and, despite what others might think, that was all that mattered to Rocky.

Set ambitious goals for yourself. Goals that you will feel great achieving. They don’t have to be what everyone else thinks should be your goal. It’s personal - define your own measure of success.

Perseverance

Don’t give up. Sports movies are great for perseverance lessons. It might sound old-fashoned, but there’s a lot to be said for stick-to-itiveness. Rocky never gave up, even when the odds were stacked against him. He never gave up, even when fighting a clearly superior opponent. He never gave up, even when that superior fighter was beating him nearly senseless.

Don't get distracted 

Rocky let himself get distracted and it cost him dearly. In retrospect, he saw that he didn’t train with focus, didn’t commit himself 100% to the task at hand and learned from that mistake.

This high-speed, high-tech life throws distractions at you faster than you can text “I’m bz, catch ^ l8r.” Don’t let things, especially stupid things, get in the way of important things. Do your homework, get your reading done, write that paper a week before it’s due (and then keep improving it with the time you have left) instead of writing it at 10 p.m. the night before it’s due.

The basics are the basics

Rocky was not a great fighter but what he did, he did well. He’s wasn’t flashy, he just knew what to do with the basic skills he had. You have to know how to do the basics really well before you can take on higher-level stuff. Education is circular - you see the same content again and again but each time it’s at a deeper level. 

Learn your multiplication tables well and you’ll have a much easier time with higher levels of math. The same goes with every subject. Learn to write a clear, succinct paragraph and all future writing assignments instantly become easier. Struggle with paragraph structure and a five-page paper becomes a nightmare of unparalleled proportions.

Take the hits and keep moving forward

There’s a great scene in “Rocky Balboa” that’s worth watching. Rocky talks about taking responsibility for your life. He tells his son that life is going to hit you hard and you have to keep moving forward. In Rocky’s view, the measure of self worth is how successful you are in dealing with the setbacks you will face as you move though life.

There you have it: A nickel's worth of philosophy based on a series of movies about a fictional fighter from Philadelphia. As silly as they can be, the Rocky movies are full of good life lessons even if you’re not a prize fighter.