So who we looking at?

Character: Det. Del Spooner
Actor: Will Smith
From: I, Robot (2004)

Why look at him?

Spooner is a great character to look at, as he spends nearly the entire film working alone against considerable pressure and ridicule from everyone he meets, who thinks he’s crazy. Instead of crumbling, Spooner pushes through and eventually proves that he’s right and saves the day. Therefore, worth a read!

Why should I care?

A big problem that most people face when they try to change, is that they can run into a wall of doubt from others. A lot of people will not have any faith in you and worse, some will try and stop you moving to the next level by making negative comments or otherwise sabotaging you. For some people, they do not wish to change themselves but are scared of others who want to. Therefore, they try and hold others back by name calling or sabotaging their attempt at transformation, to keep things the want they want them.

If you’re not strongly enough motivated, you can crumble under the pressure of trying to prove yourself to others, your eyes will come of the target and you simply run out of steam and fail. So how do you push through these barriers? Simple! You keep reading and learn some strategies to win.

OK, what should I be looking out for?

To quickly set the scene, the year is 2035. Spooner is a Chicargo Police Detective who lives in an age where anthropomorphic robots are common place. They help serve and protect humans and are practically slaves. The rest of the world have accepted the robots as their servants and let them deal with errands like delivering parcels, looking after duties at the house like cooking, cleaning etc. They all have complete faith in their robotic servants and feel protected by the much heralded ‘3 Laws’ (a system of commands – strangely enough 3 of them – that govern how the robot acts and in theory, prevents them harming humans. However, Spooner doesn’t believe this for a second and is determined to prove it.

• The rest of the world feel complete faith in their control over the robots. Spooner is convinced they are ‘evil’ and determined to prove it. However, despite several people changing their opinions of the robots throughout the film, Spooner’s never wavers of his suspicions of the robots until the very end of the film. It is this that makes him a good character to look at. Instead of following the general belief that the others hold, Spooner stays true to his beliefs and instead looks for evidence to support his way of thinking. In my opinion, this is the best way to live life. Come to your own beliefs, regardless of what others are doing, then look for evidence to support or refute your beliefs and change accordingly, rather than cling to a universal doctrine passed down by everyone else.
• Spooner is his own man. He does what he wants, when he wants – he doesn’t conform to the typical social norms that the others seem to follow. He dresses in clothes he likes rather than a work ‘uniform’ (notice how the other cops wear suits as Spooner is in leather trousers). He insults people, he doesn’t take things seriously and acts 100% congruent towards what he feels is right. This is hell of attractive to girls – girls like a guy who does as he thinks and feels to his core, not someone who does things to impress others, changing his beliefs daily. Spooner is the sort of guy that you want to be like – he takes no shit, acts as he wants and does as he believes. You know within five minutes that Spooner changes his behavior for no one until he sees evidence.
• Spooner is resourceful. He isn’t as reliant on technology and being served by the robots as the others are. Instead, he has backup plans and thinks on his feet. By learning to ‘roll with the punches’, you will find that you are never stuck. Spooner uses his gift of being able to see past standard thinking to investigate things, that the others won’t believe. It is this way of thinking, that keeps him ahead of the robots. Imagine how much success you could get by ignoring standard thinking and looking at life in a new way. Try and think about how you do things and look for ways that you could do the task differently, faster and more effectively. You’d be amazed at how stupidly you’ve been doing something, simply because its the way you were shown and always done it!
• Spooner protects others, regardless if they believed the same way he did. He even puts himself in danger, to save others in mortal pearl. Spooner isn’t too big headed to assist or save others in trouble regardless if they insulted him or thought he was crazy. Too many people nowadays don’t help others when they can or only those who support their world view. Spooner is a great person to copy as he knows the benefits of human relationships and helping his fellow man. He fights against the odds even when they seem too much to protect others, he simply pushes himself to the next level to succeed.
• Spooner has complete faith in himself and his abilities. He follows his gut and believes in what he is doing, ignoring the repeated insults and jokes from the masses. Spooner never changes his views and instead goes towards his overall goal without having to rely on others for support. He’s very independent. That is one of Spooner’s best features. He works towards an overall goal, using his confidence in himself to ignore the doubters and succeed.

OK, pretty cool but how do I become like him?

• To sum it up, you need to stop caring what others think of you and what you are doing. Develop a thick skin and let their opinions bounce off you. On your death bed, you will not care what others thought of you, instead you will be more interested in what you have achieved in your life. You need to go after what you want and not let anyone hold you back because they doubt you. You will find that the truth is that they doubt themselves, not you. They are simply stating their opinions on themselves but outward as they won’t admit it to themselves. Have faith in yourself and go for it.
• You’ve got to believe. You’ve got to have 100% faith in whatever you believe. On the flip side, you must also be willing to change if necessary but only if you see the evidence to change your viewpoint, not simply because others are pressuring you into changing. Whatever you believe, investigate it and look at evidence that supports it and that which doesn’t. You need to be confident enough to consider all possibilities. Once you have learned about the topic and used any relevant personal experience, then you must stay strong in your viewpoint until proved wrong.
• Be yourself. Follow your gut not what others tell you. Your brain is the smartest thing that you will ever interact with. Don’t leave it to people, who may have ulterior motives to you or put bluntly, not as smart or experienced as you. Look at all the evidence and decide on your own. Some people (many on TV or media) actually have less knowledge on a subject that the average person but we believe them due to them being in a power position. How ludicrous is that. Decide on what you believe yourself, not what is written in a book or on TV. Forget how everyone else feels, you should decide your opinion internally.
• Know why you’re doing what your doing – have an end goal in mind. You’ll fail easily if your belief in what you’re doing is weak. Instead, you must decide what you want out of life and go for it. If you truly want it and focus solely on it, you’ll find negativity will simply bounce off you. Your end goal needs to be strong enough for you to get up out of bed ready to go hard. It needs to be strong enough that you will work alone towards achieving your end goal. All you need to do is remain congruent to what you believe in and not change for anyone.
• Put yourself into high pressure situations. For example, approach the high quality girls, go for the rise at work and so on. You need to learn, repeatedly, that you can face high levels of pressure and come through unscathed. Once you’ve done it a few times, you will realise there is nothing to fear in someone else’s opinion. They can doubt you all they like but you will learn that you can pass the big tests in life. That makes their opinion worthless. Ignore the doubters and work to achieve your goal.
• Keep working on yourself to learn the skills and capabilities to defend yourself and achieve your goals. For example, hit the gym to build up muscles, learn to push through plateaus and past your limitations. Or go to a night class to learn new skills, expand your comfort zone and so on. You need to ensure that whatever you are working to accomplish, you have the skills and capabilities to get there. Write down the end goal and then work out the steps you need to take to achieve it. Then simply work towards each step. As you’ve written out the steps it should be easy. Then when others doubt you, you won’t care as you won’t need to rely on the help of others as you have your action plan to hand. You will just keep going forward till you get to your goals.

Spooner is a great character to look at. He is the cool guy that women love and the sort of person we wish we could become. However, you can become like him. Each minute is a chance to start again and change, no matter what others think of you or tell you. Stop letting others hold you back. Crack on and see what you can achieve in life!

Let me know what you think in the comments below and remember to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Till next time, keep striving for the Next Level!

P.S. Down to him recommending me some cool bands to check out, I am dedicating this article to Devon, one of my twitter followers – follow him back guys, he’s ‏@Athion_Bel