What Pixar’s SOUL taught me about life

First and foremost I would like to thank Pixar for giving me an existential crisis right before the beginning of 2021. There are very few movies that I go back to more than two times and undoubtedly SOUL is one of them. I’ve watched it at least three times since its release on December 25th, 2020. Yeah I know, I have a lot of time on my hands and this movie deserved every second of it. Right from the visuals of normal life to the Great Beyond to the lost souls, each and every frame was so well thought of and deserved a short film of its own. Here’s what I took away from the movie-

1. Finding purpose

Joe Gardener kept waiting on his big break into the world of music to make him realise he had a purpose. Once he was dead and his life was shown to him in frames he couldn’t help but think his life was so meaningless.

Oftentimes, we keep waiting on big breakthroughs and the pursuit of fame to make us feel like we matter. But if we are doing something we love, regardless of whether we “blow up” or not ,that is our purpose. Only we get to assign this heavy meaning of purpose in our lives and to those who are doing what they love on a daily basis, you’re already living out your purpose with or without external results. Our purpose will be right in front of our eyes the whole time but we fail to acknowledge its simplicity.

2. Living life vs. waiting on life

Once 22 and Joe Gardener were together on earth and 22 was in Joe’s body, she made sure she enjoyed every minute of it. Right from eating pizza, no REALLY tasting it, to engaging in conversation to the barber to lying down on the street to enjoy the wind, what Joe would otherwise call regular old living, 22 embraced each moment without getting lost in the future. Why must we wait till we get old enough to realise we really had it good instead of embracing and living the good. This moment is all we will ever have and the little things in this moment outweigh the build up for a big moment.

3. Disconnection

When Joe came back and moonwind told him that 22 had now become a lost soul, he wanted to just give 22 the earth pass, but regardless of what he told 22 nothing changed her state.

Most of us live in our heads a lot and this creates a certain hostility between other people and us. We try so hard to not feel like outsiders but that’s what living in your head constantly does to you. You lose touch with your real self and everything in your life. Nothing is really guaranteed except birth and death, so why live each moment afraid of the next and comparing your journey to someone you don’t even know. Just as portrayed in the movie the voices in 22’s head stopped Joe from coming in but at the end of the day they were made of sand, which means they were just an illusion and not what’s real. Tear down your barriers once in a while because vulnerability will make you feel connected rather than disconnected.

4. Never give up

Just as Joe never gave up on his musical dreams regardless of not earning enough, the lack of stability and benefits, the unpredictability of all of it and his family not believing it’s the right direction for him, he continued showing up for himself and his music and he finally got the Gig of his life. Just keep going, 90% of success is just showing up.

5. Everything is not what it seems

After Joe played at the Gig he was waiting for his whole life, he came to the realization that he thought he would feel way more different than he felt in the moment. That’s when Dorothea told him a story about a fish who asked a bigger fish where the ocean was. To that the bigger fish said that he is in water already to which the fish said no he was finding the ocean.

Our whole lives we build up an image of what our life should look like and once we reach that there will always be more to want, that’s just human nature. When you realise what you want won’t give you everything you think it will, you’re free to have it.

6. The world goes on

Towards the end of the movie Joe is shown playing the piano where there’s a zoom out scene right until the universe is shown. The universe is so vast and we’re just a tiny speck of dust in it. We put way too much importance upon ourselves which undoubtedly hinders the quality of our lives and takes all the fun away. The good news is the world is going to continue even after you and all that we think is important doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things so why not just enjoy the ride.

If I haven’t said it before I will say it again, this movie is a must watch. It’ll make you fall in love with life and everything in it. Pixar you really outdid yourself with the visuals and story line. What a great end to 2020.