Goal Liberation

Meaningful moments & lessons on leadership from How To Train Your Dragon 2.

The story takes place in a mystical Viking world, in a village called Berk. Hiccup is a young Viking teenager, who also happens to be the chief’s son; aspires to follow his tribe’s tradition of becoming a dragon slayer. He finally captures his first dragon, which is a Night Fury, and supposedly one of the more dangerous dragons around. Hiccup finds that he is unable to kill the dragon, and ends up befriending it and naming it Toothless. Which leads to a whole new shift in Berk, turning them from dragon slayers to dragon riders. Hiccup stands out from the other Vikings of Berk. He is hesitant, a little out of his depth but Hiccup is also a gifted builder and he has a heart. He has a way of convincing people and making them to see things differently.

NOT ALL LEADERS ARE THE SAME

Hiccup is not exactly the obvious kind of leader. Compared with the other Vikings of Berk, he is small-sized, a little off-coordination and inept. Hiccup always believed that he was not fit to be the chief of Berk, because he was not like his father, who was big, strong & brave. Hiccup is later made to realize that although he is not like his father, it does not mean that he is not a leader, or that he would not make a good one. It just means that he is a different kind of leader. There are many different kinds of leaders out there, each one with their very own set of unique traits & strengths. No two leaders are identical. This means that each one of us has the potential to be great leaders. We just have to accept the responsibilities and rise to the occasion.

ASSEMBLE A POWER TEAM

In the movie, we see that in order to defeat Drago and get the dragons back, Hiccup, Astrid and all of their friends work together. They came up with a plan, and each one of them had their own part to play to make it work. There is so much more you can achieve if you fully utilize the strengths & quality of each member of your team. As longs as everyone in the team is aligned towards achieving the same goal, you are guaranteed of success.

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO FAIL A FEW TIMES BEFORE YOU CAN SUCCEED

Toothless the dragon lost his wing tail when he was shot. Hiccup, being the builder that he is, tried several times to fix the dragon’s tail to help him to fly. His first few attempts did not work out so well, but eventually Hiccup’s patience and determination paid off and he found the solution to fix Toothless’s tail wing. Failure is something which is inevitable for us. In different stages of our lives and careers, we will face countless failures. It is important to keep our focus and willpower, and to learn from our failures. We are capable of achieving great things if we do not allow our failures to act as hindrances.

BE OPEN TO ACCEPTING CHANGE

In the first movie, Berk was a village which thrived on its people being dragon fighters. Dragons were seen as pests and enemies, and the Vikings were proud to fight and kill them. Hiccup brings a whole new change to Berk, by being the first not to kill a dragon. Hiccup showed the people of Berk that dragons are actually tame and friendly creatures. At first it was not easy for the people to accept and understand that, but in the end the whole village understood Hiccup’s point of view and they went from being dragon fighters to dragon riders. We often cringe at the word CHANGE. It sounds frightening, as we are usually comfortable with things being the way they are. Just like Hiccup, we have no idea how things will turn out in the end, but we would never know if we did not try in the first place. Be open to accepting change, and you would be amazed at the good that change can bring. Lastly, one of the most significant themes from the movie was to STEP UP. Take ownership and lead, like Hiccup did when his father was killed, and he decided he would have to take the lead and be chief.

I WAS AFRAID OF BECOMING MY DAD. MOSTLY BECAUSE I THOUGHT I NEVER COULD. HOW DO YOU BECOME SOMEONE THAT GREAT, THAT BRAVE, THAT SELFLESS? I GUESS YOU CAN ONLY TRY - HICCUP

By Hyma Pillay