For the longest time I’ve believed I’ve found my life purpose. A common trend I notice is once you
blow up on social media, or once you make it into the pros in music, sports, or any other type of
career that pays the big bucks is when you can truly say you found what you were meant to do in
life. For me, it was like that too. Making YouTube videos is something I generally enjoy doing,
but it wasn’t until certain videos went viral that I was like “yeah, this is definitely what I
was meant to do in life”. But there’s a problem here that I think at some point we all realize
either the easy way or the hard way. The idea of a life purpose is often associated with money,
fame and success. My question is let's say you do become mega successful. Once that success
dies down, unexpectedly I might add, is it still your life purpose? Or were you sadly mistaken?
And then you start saying, “Well, what the hell? I thought this was my life purpose, I’m supposed to
be successful.” “Well, okay if this isn’t my life purpose, then what is?” Those thoughts start to
play in your head. Something that I had to realize recently, and something that the new Pixar movie
“Soul” expresses is obsessing over finding that one life purpose can be incredibly dangerous.
On an unrelated note, I think this is my new favorite Pixar movie. Which is funny because
I just made a video about Ratatouille and how that was the best one, but not until I watched this.
This movie completely surpassed my expectations, and surprised me with the direction it took.
By the way, spoiler warning, if you haven’t seen it yet, which I highly recommend you do.
As the title of the movie implies it’s all about souls. A character who goes by the name 22 being
one of them. She likes to disconnect herself from everyone. Nobody ever believed in her, probably
because of her personality. She doesn’t want to go to Earth because she believes that Earth is dumb,
but once she is accidently sent through a portal with this dude named Joe, which we’ll get to,
she ends up in his body and he ends up in a cat’s body. Of course, this creates a huge
problem. On the bright side, 22 finally gets to experience life, even if she had to do it the hard
way. She starts her little adventure disgusted to be on Earth, not giving it a chance, but as the
story progresses, she slowly becomes more and more interested in the little things in life.
Whether it be food, conversations, or even fear, it all fascinates her, it all starts to make sense
for her. Eventually, she realizes that life isn’t as bad as she thought it would be. Joe then tells
her she is only appreciating life because she is in his body, and demands that she return his
body back to him. After that, she takes off, but they’re both eventually captured by The Universe.
Long story short, 22 falls into a major state of depression, and becomes, what the movie calls,
“a lost soul”. All her insecurities, and negative thoughts consume her to the point of no return.
The biggest one being the idea that she has no purpose. Joe resolves this issue by making a
point that I’ll express by the end of the video. One part of the movie I found interesting is this
concept of the flow state, or “the zone” as this movie calls it. They call it the space between the
physical and spiritual. To be in a flow state you have to really enjoy what you are doing,
but as the movie points out, there are times when that joy can become an addiction, and thus
you become disconnected from life. Very often, that’s what happens when one is obsessed with
whatever activity they consider to be their life purpose. There are times when nothing else matters
but that one activity, and while that mindset can be beneficial at times when you really want
to get something done, not being self aware about it can cause major issues to your mental health.
Another problem with the concept of a life purpose is you’re probably going
to get bored from time to time, with whatever activity you classify as your life purpose.
One scene that I found interesting is this one where the little girl is like “screw Jazz,
it sucks” and then 5 minutes later she plays her trombone, gets into her flow state and is all like
“actually, I love jazz, never mind”. My point is that human beings are like that.
Our minds change all the time, every year, every day. You can have a passion for something and
still get bored with it sometimes. There are days when you might even want to never do it again,
then a day goes by and you go right back at it as if nothing ever happened.
Now I want to talk about this dude. Joe Gardner, my dude lives, breathes, and dreams jazz. He
dedicates his entire life to that one activity. He has a profession as a middle school band teacher,
but desperately wants to perform professionally onstage. Once he finally gets that big gig he’s
dreamed of he becomes so excited to the point where he forgets where he is walking
and falls down a sewer hole to his death, and dies, rip… except he isn’t technically dead yet,
as he discovers a spiritual world. When mentoring 22, he reviews how his life transpired.
All of his painful memories are revealed to him, so he comes to the conclusion that his
whole life was a failure, and he must return back to set the record straight.
By 22 living in Joe’s body, later on in the movie, it gives him an opportunity to see how obsessed he was
over jazz. There’s a scene where she talks to a barber about life and he says
even though being a barber wasn’t his original choice, he’s still a happy man and
sees the beauty of it. He wasn’t born to do what he does, it’s just something he
discovered along the way. It gets Joe thinking, “damn, maybe I should take that advice”.
Then after they leave, the barber goes “oh my gosh, it’s so nice to talk to you Joe
about something other than jazz for once”. That’s definitely a problem I can relate to. Not from the
barbers perspective, but from Joe’s perspective. Once you finally find that quote-unquote “life
purpose” you become so obsessed over it to the point where it’s all you think, dream and talk
about. When you talk to your friends for example, you may not even realize that all you talk about is that one
activity that you put on a pedestal. You miss all the other satisfying memories of what life has to
offer. After he gets his body back near the end of the movie, Joe finally performs at the concert
he tried so desperately hard to get into, and discovers it wasn’t what he thought it would be.
Imagine dedicating your entire life for a gig, only to find out it was just like any other job.
Slightly more exciting, yes, but not quite what you were expecting. At that point, I think pretty
much anyone would fall into an instant state of depression. You would instantly realize that
all the people you could have connected with better, all the opportunities you passed up,
all the days that you took for granted are all long and gone. You would instantly realize
that the whole life purpose search is a trap. A trap designed to destroy you both physically
and mentally. Life purpose is something that I think really needs to be redefined. When you say
you want to find your life purpose, you really gotta be specific with what you mean by that.
Some might say their life purpose is being a musician, a barber, or a clothes designer,
and okay... but then what? Is everything else you do just meaningless after that? The fact of
the matter is you didn’t come into this world to do one specific thing. None of us did. Everything you do in this
world... everything you experience... the highs, the lows, the successes, the failures, the love,
the negativity, that’s what living life is all about… experience... that’s the meaning of life.
Even something as simple as walking, or breathing air are life purposes. So free your soul from
that limited box. You can be anything, multiple things, and that time will come, but don’t forget to be happy to be alive.