Take a Movie’s Advice is a weekly column attempting to discover the similarities between our favorite movies and real life. Grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the show.

Imagine this: it’s a hectic Sunday night as you’re scrambling to finish the last few lines of your research paper. You glance over at your colorful monthly planner, narrowing your eyes at upcoming events and tasks, wondering when you will have the time to finally check those items off your growing list. You think to yourself, “I might as well just cancel everything non school-related at this point.”

In the midst of our busy lives, it’s easy to get swept up in the day-to-day. That one thing – a quiz you spent all night studying for, a short speech you had to give at a program dinner, or even a group project that’s been lingering in the back of your mind – may be significant in the moment, but when you consider other factors, it might not be that significant at all.

While it’s beneficial to focus on the smaller details, when we do this too much, we can lose sight of what’s truly important to us.

The solution? We all need to take ourselves off of autopilot and brush up on our skills for approaching life. And who better to learn from than Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus “Gus” Waters from The Fault in Our Stars? Here are three important skills we learned from the film.

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About the Movie 

Based on the novel of the same name, The Fault in Our Stars is a 2014 romantic drama film centered around Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), a witty teenager who has a cynical outlook on life. After developing terminal thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs, Hazel’s parents encourage her to attend weekly cancer patient support groups to help her cope and make friends.