Inspiring Life Stories

What 7 lessons we learn from the life of Charlie Chaplin?

    There is a struggle in everybody’s life and only the fighter comes out of the crisis successfully. Charlie Chaplin, the person not only struggled but made other laugh at the backdrop of his struggle.

      Living our lives with regrets, sorrow and anger is not what we can proudly carry for the rest of our journey. Struggle and failures might be hard to endure but once fought will give us major lessons to be learnt.

     Born in 1889 in London, England, Chaplin’s early years were tumultuous at best. Born into poverty, Chaplin’s father abandoned them at the age of 2-years old, leaving his mother with no real income aside from the odd side job making dresses or nursing.

    After returning from the workhouse for a brief period, Chaplin’s mother was committed to a mental asylum at the age of 9-years old. Chaplin’s mother battled mental illness for several years after that, until she was permanently committed to an asylum where she stayed until her death in 1928.

         In the meantime, Chaplin and his brother, Sydney, were on their own, oftentimes going without food for days while trying to survive in the wake of all the familial turmoil.

During this time, Chaplin partook in stage plays and enhanced his comedic talents along with his step-dancing abilities. Ultimately, he found his way to Hollywood, California where Chaplin was famously turned away and snubbed, only later to become the greatest silent-film actor to have ever lived.  His career began when he was only 14.  His career lasted for well over seven decades.

He became beloved in American theaters for his portrayal of “The Little Tramp.” Chaplin was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1971. Of his award the Academy noted, “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. He was given an unprecedented 12 minute standing ovation. Sir Charles “Charlie” Spencer Chaplin died of a stroke, at the age of 88 in his adopted home in Switzerland on December 25, 1977.

The lessons we learn from the life of Charlie Chaplin.

7 lessons we learn from the life of Charlie Chaplin.

1. Laughter is the best medicine.

His life and work moved around the people making them laugh. He believed that a day wasted without laughter is the day wasted. He built his career around making people laugh. To him it was a serious business, indeed. Making boots out of a pair of loaves with forks for legs, is only a scratch on the surface. He made millions laugh with almost all of his work. My lesson learned is to not take myself so seriously.

2. Know your Goal

In one of his saying he said that, I don’t believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career – Charlie Chaplin

In being a creative mastermind, he did not so much live a charmed existence, in so much as he created the very world he wanted to inhabit. He did not only invite criticism about his work, but about his personal life as well. He was married four times and often to women who were half his age. A behavior that was scandalous to say the least especially in the budding of Hollywood, in the early twentieth century.  The lesson for me here is to know my goal  what I want from my  work.

3. Love of Oneself

Charlie Chaplin had said once “As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is love of oneself.”

His life teaches that he loved himself more than anything and that is the strength he got in his life which prevented him from getting lost in the struggles of life and come out successfully.

 Self-love is actually important. Today, many among us take rejections critically. There’s no point to keep suffering mentally unless and until we fully know what we wanna achieve exactly. We keep on craving unnecessarily for unwanted things in our head sometimes. Sir Charlie Chaplin teaches us to maintain a harmony between our thoughts and actions.

4. Give your full effort.

Charlie Chaplin used to say that while performing he had no idea about the character but the moment he was dressed, being make up he knew the person he was and started feeling him. The moment he went to the stage, the character was born.

This was the level of dedication and effort he used to give for his work and goal. His life therefore teaches us to give full throttle effort towards our goal.

5. Never Give up.

The life of Charlie Chaplin teaches us never to give up. He used to say “Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind to indifference.”

From his famous portrayal as the “Little Tramp” to his controversial political views; Chaplin’s entire career could be defined by the words to never give up. The lesson learned is to have the perseverance and never to give up attitude.

6. Self Confidence.

The life and work of Charlie Chaplin teaches us the lesson of self-confidence. Going by his own saying that “As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it self-confidence”, it could be well understood that he had high self-confidence and this led to success.

Self-confidence is the only key that relates you with your own self. It never allows you to take wrong decisions or get jealous with other’s success or achievements.

7. Live life for the moment.

 Past and future cannot be controlled even by the CEO of a large corporation or even a multi-billionaire. Yes, but one thing can be done powerfully is to live in present and grow everyday by focusing on little things to paint a larger picture. Hence, without the worry about future, we must be capable enough to live independently and work towards betterment of self and society.

    Charlie Chaplin said “I refused to go on living in the past and worrying about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where everything is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it fulfillment.”