Squidward And Plankton Can Teach Us Valuable Life Lessons
I am 36 and still enjoy Spongebob Squarepants, and I am not ashamed.
We need more Squidward Tentacles in this world to achieve world peace. He is the mascot for all introverts. He is a character I enjoy in the series. Squidward is a very realistic character in a world filled with ass-pleasing, fame-seeking, and trouble-making people. Here’s what we can learn from Tentacles.
Introverted, Peace-loving, Minds his own business, And Into Music, Art, and Self-care
I am an introvert, so I can relate to his character in every possible way. Perhaps that’s why I like him.
Squidward loves to be alone in his little home after work. He doesn’t need anyone to give him happiness. He doesn’t ask anyone for anything. He is independent. He is a lover of music, art, and self-care. His self-care ideas are something everyone must consider following to feel rejuvenated and revitalized.
All the magic happens in his home. He hates companies, except his mother’s. He hates people and noise. He likes peace and quiet. He smiles and talks to himself when he’s at home. But if you see him anywhere outside his home, he is mostly grumpy and gloomy. That’s because people suck his energy. Spongebob and Patrick are typical extroverts. They annoy Tentacles all the time. He gets irritated and tries to avoid them. He doesn’t hate them, but he doesn’t want them around either.
There are many Squidwards in this world, and I am one of them. I don’t cause trouble, and I don’t like people causing trouble. I do my work and enjoy my life in my own way. People don’t understand me, and I don’t understand most of them. As a teacher, although I meet more people every day than most others, I like to spend my evenings all by myself, just like Squidward. He meets many customers in ‘The Krusty Krab’ every day, and he’s OK with that. Once he is home, his world transforms into what he loves his real world to be. Thankfully, I don’t have Spongebob and Patrick sort of people as my neighbors.
Squidward teaches us that happiness starts from within. One has to master self-love before seeking love from another human. Learning to be alone all by yourself is very important to get a deeper understanding of who you are and what you really need in this life.
He loves little pleasures in life because he lives in the moment with fewer distractions, well, until Spongebob enters the scene obviously. He loves art and music. He has big goals in life — to perform on stage and to be the best musician. He is a perfectionist.
He has high self-esteem, which is contradictory to most introverts, who have low self-esteem. But that’s OK. He likes to hang his own pictures and portraits on his walls. He is also someone who wants to keep his home interior impeccably tasteful with good pieces of furniture and other expensive decors. And that’s because home is the only place introverts need to survive, dream, achieve, and rewind. He is very lonely, but he is also happy and has accepted who he is and what he wants out of his life.
Resilience
Whatever life throws at you on your path towards your goal, keep bouncing back stronger than before. Plankton has shown that throughout the series. His goal is to find out what’s in the Krabby Patty. He gets beaten up and thrown out, but he comes up with a better idea after every fall. Although real life is so much different, we can still learn to be like him in the process of getting what we want in life.
Perseverance
Plankton’s perseverance to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula can be applied directly to our lives. Despite all the hardships he faces, he keeps trying his best. Nothing stops him from doing it. In real life, we, ourselves, are almost always the reason why we lose hope and give up trying for something. We lose grip and tend to give up after trying a few times. Negative thoughts start lingering within us, and that’s usually the beginning of the end. But Plankton doesn’t lose hope. He is greatly persevered to get the prize of his life — the Krabby Patty secret formula.
Innovation
Plankton is highly innovative. God knows how he does it with his size. But still, he does it somehow. He does whatever it takes to steal what he wants. He is not only resilient and perseverant but also highly inventive. If one method doesn’t work, he gets all inventive and uses another, better method. In real life, we could use this to get what we want.
If sticking to our goal through resilience and perseverance is one thing, being inventive and trying different approaches is another important aspect. If Plankton chose to act his true size, he would be just another plankton in a sea of plankton. Our Plankton, on the other hand, chose not to act his size. He has massive self-esteem, self-confidence, and determination.
Size doesn’t matter. Plankton sees himself as a winner. He doesn’t get intimidated by all his previous defeats at the hands of Mr. Krabs and others. In real life, if we want to achieve something great, it’s important to forget about who we are and how we are seen by our society. The only thing that’s important is what we want in life.
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