Fight Club is filled with scenes where Edward Norton is doing irrational things with the sole purpose to fight his survival instincts. Sometimes that’s pouring acid on his hand to realize pain is a creation of the mind. Sometimes that’s not wearing a tie to work even though it’s required. Sometimes it’s letting go of the steering wheel as your car reels 100 mph down the highway.

In all cases, his goal, internally, is freedom from a self, from an image that we or society impose on ourselves. His character arc, this journey to break free of the self and all the labels society has put on him, starts in self-help ground. It’s there that he can go and be anyone he wants and everyone accepts him. Each group that he meets with, he takes on a new identity, a new alias, a different self.

A few days after watching this, I had a brief Fight Club inspired moment. I was eating lunch, and I read a message that made me afraid. Without thinking I began shoveling food into my mouth. A few scoops later, I paused chewing, with a mouth full of mashed up food. I stood up, walked to the garbage, and although I really wanted to enjoy that bite of tuna steak covered in the creamy avocado, I regurgitated it back up. It dropped it into the garbage.

Maybe sad. Maybe a win. Maybe doesn’t make sense. And for sure a whole lot of crazy. But it’s these inspirations we shouldn’t be afraid to act out because we only learn when we act out of our pattern.