Our greatest growth comes from our darkest times
"You look through the dark side. You'll see the lighter side, the human side.
Michael J. Fox
Ted Lasso fans, assemble! If you haven't watched Shrinking yet, we recommend adding it to your list. Like our all-time favourite show about the fictional AFC Richmond, it's one of those series that sneaks up on you and quietly teaches you something about the ups and downs of life.
And given that Harrison Ford - who plays a therapist navigating his own Parkinson's diagnosis in the show - is very much having a moment right now (be sure to catch his Lifetime Achievement Award speech, from last week), we couldn't go past the behind-the-scenes video that landed on our radar this week.
It features Ford alongside Michael J. Fox, who consulted on the show and appears in a handful of recent episodes. Watching the two of them talk about what the project meant to them, it got us thinking about the power of perspective, and the ripple effects it can have.
Now of course, we wouldn't pretend to know what it's like to navigate Parkinson's on a daily basis. Every experience is unique, and there's no one size fits all for life's biggest challenges.
But what we found so striking was Michael J. Fox's reflections on his own experience, and how this perspective can be applied to so many other areas of life.
Michael doesn't sugarcoat it. "This sh*t is hard, it's unfair... and it's boring," his character Gerry shares with Paul in Shrinking. But this authenticity is also what makes Michael's acceptance and overall perspective so remarkable.
What's more, Michael has embraced the ultimate shift in leadership here — that Chapter 3 moment in every hero's journey where we move from ‘I to We’. We see him taking a deeply personal experience and using it to guide the storytellers around him. Shaping how Parkinson's is represented on screen. Giving people a reference point that might help them approach their own struggles.
Whether you're navigating something similar yourself, or supporting someone in their most vulnerable moments, this story carries greater depth because of Michael's courage and humility.
Another way the light gets in, amongst the darkness.
Be sure to check out the behind-the-scenes video of Michael J.Fox and Harrison Ford:
And for more on this kind of mindset work, our Unlocking Perspective program is a great place to start 👇