8 best life lessons from Forrest Gump

We remember the best life lessons from Forrest Gump and memorable moments of the movie starring Tom Hanks.

If things don’t go your way, if you don’t know what to do to feel better, we suggest this classic, an inexhaustible source of strength and optimism.

When something is extraordinary, it leaves a mark forever. This is the case with Forrest Gump, who received, in general terms, the approval of the critics and the audience. Between drama and comedy, this 1994 film managed to captivate the viewer due to the sensitivity and honesty of its protagonist.

A man with mental retardation who overcame the difficulties and influenced the world, although he did not realize it. Its central message, it does not go out of style despite the years, it is about getting ahead despite adversities and that love, friendship and honesty are the pillars of everything.

Throughout the film, starring Tom Hanks, some phrases are to be taken and applied in our own lives.

Here we share the best life lessons and the ones that motivate us the most.

1- “I suppose sometimes there are not enough stones.”

The scene in the movie of Jenny throwing stones at her father’s old house is one of the most mythical in the film, and hides a harsh truth:

She lived a difficult childhood and adolescence due to the abuse of her father, something that marked her for life.

The search for freedom led her to go through different stages, some of them were self-destructive, but each of her movements came derived from that past that for her weighed like a slab and was impossible to forget.

The past sometimes weighs too much, and we do not have all the resources to get rid of it, so the only thing we have left is to learn to live with the memory.

2- “A promise is a promise.”

Is it apparent, right? However, more than one should be reminded often. A person’s word says a lot about who he is, has been and will be, and we value him less and less.
It seems evident that promises are made to keep them, but this is not always the case.

The value of a person’s word seems to lose importance over the years. But what we say and do in correspondence with the promises we make, mean a lot about how and who we are.

“Forrest always kept all his promises”

The good guy from Forrest showed us, both actively and passively, that when you give your word to someone else, you have to go to the end and fulfill what was promised.

In fact, throughout the film, he made more than one promise, both to his friends and to the love of his life, fulfilling each of his words no matter what he had to do for it.

3- “When I was sleepy, I slept. When I was hungry, I ate. When I should… you know, I was going”

Forrest started running and spent three years doing it simply because he wanted to. Although it is difficult for us to see it, life is that simple.

You just have to do what you want when you want and what you should when you should look for no other reason than to move on.

It seems evident that we should all do what we want and when we want, but this is not always the case.

We live conditioned, above all, by what is established in society, that is, we let ourselves be carried away by the current that says that we have to buy a house, a car, get married, have children and start a family although not everyone wants that future.

Forrest put aside all those prejudices and managed to do epic things, regardless of what people expected of him.

He was running simply because he wanted to because at that moment it was what he wanted and nobody was going to stop him.

Maybe we should all be resilient and do like Forrest and spend a little more time on those things that make us happy.

4- “Do the best you can with what God has given you.”

Leaving aside religious beliefs, the essence of this phrase is what is essential. For one reason or another, each one has certain conditions, and the only thing we can do is decide what to do with them.

Each of us is born with a series of virtues and defects that make us special. We are not always able to see each of our possibilities because we tend to focus on the most negative aspects, but ‘Forrest Gump’ taught us the importance of taking advantage of both, taking advantage of those defects that actually make us unique instead of regret for them.

One of the mythical scenes of the film and that demonstrate that in life you have to try everything to know how far we can go, is the one in which a Forrest in the middle of childhood launches himself to the cry of ” Run, Forrest Run! “, freeing himself from the prosthetics of his legs that forced him to walk in a strange way and realizing that he could run and had a lot of potentials.

5- “The truth, although I was always running, I never thought that would take me anywhere.”

We live in a society where speed prevails. The day to day is a constant coming and going for many people, a way of life in which we are always accelerated.

We have become accustomed to running everywhere and having almost no time to breathe and, perhaps, we should take Forrest as a reference, who spent a season running to reach a great conclusion:

“The truth, although I was always running, I never thought that would get me anywhere. “ – Forrest Gump

That plot of history is a metaphor for life that is still valid today, showing that, although we live running, most of the time, we are not going anywhere.

Best of all, Forrest managed to become a benchmark, a source of inspiration for many who wanted to follow him on his odyssey by running across the country.

He ran, but it is still a metaphor for the world we live in, in which everything goes excessively fast.

We have gotten used to going soon, and, as Forrest says, most of the time, we are not going anywhere.

6- “I don’t know much about almost nothing.”

A sentence that more than one would have to remember and apply. If we were all as smart as we think we would have fixed the world on several occasions.

But the truth is that we know a few things, and accepting it is the only way to continue learning.

“Forrest was much smarter than most thought.” – Forrest Gump 

Most of the people who crossed the Forrest trail thought he was a guy with problems and unable to do some things. Some even considered him a fool.

But Forrest was evident: he felt someone stupid as the one who does silly things, which Gump never did.

Each of his actions had motivation, but above all, he acted out of the humility that characterized him so much.

Unlike many others, who consider that they know everything in this life, Forrest assumed that he did not have absolute knowledge and that he was not an intelligent person. Still, he had other more important values, such as knowing what love is.

Likewise, Forrest had a great sense of loyalty, like the one he showed with Bubba during his time in the Vietnam War, fulfilling his friend’s dream when he died.

7- “Mom says that life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what will happen to you.”

Life is unpredictable. Wait for the unexpected. It is without a doubt, the most famous phrase in the film, it seems simple, but if you go a little deeper, it has its truth.

Chocolates assorted in a box look very lovely, but when you try, disappointment usually comes, some are very rich, others not so much, there are even bitter ones.

And they end up being a surprise like life itself.

Forrest’s mother had a significant influence on the life of our protagonist. So much so, that he always counted the sayings and phrases that his mother taught him.

One of the best known to all is the one that said “life is a box of chocolates, you never know what will happen to you. ”

Forrest himself verified it in his meats since he had moments of absolute happiness in which joy prevailed. Still, he also lived other more complicated moments in which smiling became something more challenging.

However, Forrest never gave up on anything and always knew how to get ahead, overcoming obstacles such as the problem with his legs, the prejudices of people who crossed his path or the death of loved ones.

8- “I may not be brilliant, but I do know what love is.”

Humility is the key to this phrase. Admit that we don’t know everything, only what’s essential. When his girlfriend Jenny rejects the marriage proposal, he says: “I am not an intelligent man, but I do know what love is.”

Ever since they were children, Forrest has always been attracted to his neighbour Jenny. He shared many moments with her in his childhood, so he quickly developed feelings.

However, although our protagonist only had eyes for her and lived entirely in love, he received more than one denial from Jenny, an attitude that we never understood, but which was ultimately rooted in the abuse that the woman suffered from her father in childhood.

Despite everything, Forrest finally achieved his purpose and was with Jenny until her last days, getting to start a family.

He understood love as a form of pure expression because when you truly fall in love with someone, nothing else matters more than what you feel for that person, regardless of their appearance, knowledge or skills.