Top Inspirational Documentaries For Success
By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)
This article will list 5 of the most inspirational documentaries for success that you can watch. Consistently being super motivated has been considered one of the key factors for success. After all, being driven and having a burning desire to succeed is what spurs people to put in the necessary hard work, the blood, sweat and tears that eventually help you succeed.
While motivation is often internal, people also get motivation from external sources, like their environment or reading books. While internal motivation is certainly the most powerful, having these sources giving you a boost from time to time when you feel low can also be very powerful.
People have credited reading certain books, watching certain movies or documentaries as one of the pivotal moments of their life that changed the way they used to think . Movies and documentaries certainly have an even more powerful appeal because they are a visual medium. And among these documentaries are the ones that an inspiring story closest to reality.
So let’s begin with the list of 5 of the most inspirational documentaries you can watch!
Carve Your Destiny
With almost one million views on Youtube and consistently ranking at the top spot for searches on Youtube for “Inspirational Movie” and “Inspirational Documentary”, the film Carve Your Destiny is one movie you cannot afford to miss! And guess what, I am the creator and the director of the film! The even better part? This movie is available for absolutely FREE for your viewing.
Carve Your Destiny traces my journey from back in 2007 to the end of 2013 where I embarked on a six year long quest to interview some of the most famous people and find out their secrets of success. Back in 2007, I was a student and this project faced a lot of doubts and ridicule from people who doubted that without the money, the contacts and the support, I could get such a big project made single handedly when I was a mere student.
Along the way I faced tremendous setbacks and failures, all of which have been documented in the film. Supplemented with interviews of famous people, inspiring real life stories from history and my own journey, this emotional and engaging film is one of the most comprehensive documentaries ever made on the subject of success. Furthermore, it has gained almost unanimous praise from those who have seen it on Youtube and offline. Do not miss it! You can read more about my journey in this inspirational speech I gave at IIM Indore, one of the top business schools in India.
You can watch it for FREE at
The Secret
This 2006 movie by Rhonda Byrne which then led to the bestselling book of the same name is arguably the most famous documentary of all time in the self help genre. The film features many self help experts and has been seen by millions across the globe. The film and the book were also both extremely financially successful.
The film is about the “Law of Attraction”, a belief that we tend to attract what we think about the most. It also propagated the idea that we can manifest whatever we want, whether they are riches, relationships or something else through through positive thoughts and emitting positive vibrations to the universe.
The film immediately struck chord with a lot of people who had seen this happen in their lives but it also attracted a lot of people who saw positive thinking as a shortcut to success without putting in the hard work. Positive thinking without action is worthless and it may even be a bad idea at times. Nevertheless, the Secret is still an amazing presentation, which at its core speaks the truth: Our thoughts do dictate our reality because thoughts lead to action and action leads to results!
Finding Joe:
Finding Joe is a documentary based on Joseph Campbell’s work where he observed that almost all epic and mythological stories in history and the present time follow a narrative is known as the Hero’s Journey: The hero’s journey involves a person living a relatively unremarkable life, then something happens that forces the hero to leave the unremarkable life behind and go on an adventure. At first the hero is reluctant but then makes the commitment to go through with it. During the adventure the hero is faced with numerous odds and obstacles and enemies conspire to defeat him but eventually, beating all odds he finally wins and brings with him the knowledge and wisdom that the struggle taught him and shares it with his fellow people.
What this documentary tries to tell us is that there is a hero within all of us. We are going to be given opportunities for an adventure of sort or continue living an unremarkable life. If we choose the adventure we are all going to be faced with circumstances, whether big or small that are going to test us and put us in difficulties. We are going to go through testing times and at many points in life we shall suffer defeat but if we emerge victorious we will get an amazing experience out of it, learn some great lessons and become a hero to everyone else around us. But the question is do you have the courage to unleash the hero within you?
Man on Wire
Man on Wire tells the tale of a man named Philippe Petit who in the 70’s who had the crazy dream of setting up a wire between the two World Trade Center towers and then walking on it, without any safety net!
Petit is a master wire walker but this kind of show is not permitted, so with the help of a few friends, he decides to do it anyway, illegally. The documentary is like a heist film, where the hero is trying to do something courageous but against the law.
Petit is sort of a reckless person and what he is doing is illegal but it still shows in a thrilling way how you can achieve your dreams if you are totally committed to making it happen. The film is put together beautifully with interviews of him and his friends, footage of past events, dramatized footage about all the crazy things they had to go to reach the top of the two towers unnoticed and prepare for the act, and then finally the beautiful climax where pictures of him walking on the tower are shown. This movie inspires you to chase your dreams no matter what the obstacles are and also beat fear.
The movie won an Oscar for the Best Documentary as well! Be sure to check it out!
Forks Over Knives
Forks Over Knives is a different kind of documentary which is focused on health. Health is a crucial ingredient of success because no success is possible if you are not healthy! This movie specifically focuses on the importance of having the right diet and how the right diet can to a large extent prevent us from having many of the diseases that have become so common today.
The movie especially addresses heart disease and focuses on the extensive work of Two Doctors: Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn . These researchers found that many of the diseases we have today, especially heart disease are virtually unheard of where people follow only plant based diets. These researchers through various evidences demonstrated that those who gave up animal products in all forms, including dairy and eggs as well as oil almost never had heart disease. Furthermore, even people who already had heart disease were able to significantly reverse it and unblock their arteries to an extent by switching to a completely plant based diet.
The movie also shows people who were able to drastically reduce their cholesterol and blood pressure by changing their diets and without using any medicine! Many also lost considerable weight easily. The kind of results they obtained are extremely motivational for anyone interested in leading a healthy life. Thus, from a health perspective, this documentary will be one of the most inspiring and potentially life changing ones you will ever watch.
About the Author
Anubhav Srivastava is an author, speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields, who teach the viewers how they too can make all of their dreams come true. The movie itself has been seen on Youtube by close to a million people. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.
For one on one consulting or a motivational workshop at your organization please email anubhav101@gmail.com . If you would like to write a guest blog post on Anubhavsrivastava.com you contact me on the same email address. Facebook: http://facebook.com/anubhav981
