A few days ago, I was watching the movie “The Martian” for the umpteenth time and in the end, I was still left touched by the journey that Matt Damon goes through in the movie.

The movie really shows one man’s determination to beat all odds and come out victorious and does a really good job of taking the viewer along that journey as well. One can really connect with his struggles.

As I always say, you can learn important lessons in life from virtually anywhere and this movie is a great teacher, in that it shows you what perseverance and hope can help you achieve.

So, let me share with you all some of the life lessons that I personally learned from this brilliant movie.

1. Hardships Can Come Anytime

Well, we are already aware of this one as we all have had those ups and downs in life. You may be having the best time of your life and in a snap, life can hit you in the face with a brick.

It doesn’t matter who you are or how old you are or whether you are rich or poor, when hardships come, they come knocking. All we can do is be prepared, even if that. Sometimes we are just caught off guard.

The same happens to Matt Damon’s character, in the movie as well. Everything was going well for the crew on Mars and suddenly, due to a stroke of bad luck, Matt was separated from his team and was stranded alone.

2. Don’t Give Up Hope

So, when hardships come, it is easy to give up hope and it is the first thing people usually do. That’s because most of the times, they are simply not expecting it and it hits them hard.

The feelings of being lost and the future looking hazy is common under such circumstances and you are literally brought to your knees, not knowing what to do. But you know what, don’t give up hope. It is one of the strongest human emotions there is and that is for a reason.

Wattney was left stranded alone on an entire planet, and yet he didn’t give up hope. That is the first step. It literally tells your brain that something can be done and that’s where you start to turn things around.

3. Go One Step At A Time

Hardships in life can be really overwhelming but one should deal with them like any other problems that are in a need of a solution. Instead of viewing the problem at hand as one huge thing, try to break it into smaller ones.

That way, all you have to do is solve the first one and then the next and the next and as Wattney says in the movie, “Eventually, if you solve enough of them, you get to come back home.”

The movie does a brilliant job at showing how exactly he is able to knock one problem after the other and initially it is so awesome to watch him at work and it makes you want to just go learn science!

4. Miracles Can Happen

Even when you are continuously solving those problems one step at a time, it might seem like overall, you are not moving forward one bit and that’s because recurrent failures can happen on the road to recovery as well.

In the movie, Wattney’s farm was destroyed upon which he was depended on food and things like that can take you several step backwards. But if bad things can happen, trust me, miracles can happen too.

And just like you enter a really rough patch in your life in a snap, you can come out of that rough patch in a snap too. All it takes is one miracle and the rest becomes history.

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