Soul and the Creative Struggle

Soul was an interesting movie. It's hard to make a movie about, you know, souls, when they clearly carry wishy-washy secular views about death, but thankfully, they avoided going into too much detail. There were so cool aspects, like the way people in the zone could become lost souls or the 2-D creatures in the soul world. (Also, love Terry.)

But none of that is what I wanted to talk about today. (Even though the 2-D designs were flawless.) In this post, I want to talk about the movie's theme, and how I connected to it as a creative person.

Soul and Purpose

Throughout the movie, Joe, the main character, is trying to help 22, a soul who's never had a body, to find her spark so they can both go home. For most of the story, Joe thinks that a spark is your passion, the thing you were put on this earth to do. But in the third act, he learns that it's actually just an indicator that a soul is ready to live its life.

As a culture, we're encouraged to have big dreams and go for them with all our might. There's nothing wrong with that. God gave us those dreams and desires. But we've become so obsessed with success and what that looks like, that we forget what's really important.

Joe thinks that if he plays the gig with Dorthea Williams (one of his role models), then he will have made it. He'll have done the one thing that will make his life worth it. Something that people will remember him by. His purpose.

He plays the gig. He has a wonderful time. But at the end of the night, he feels no more fulfilled than he did as a high school band teacher.

Achieving that one thing will not bring you the happiness you desire. The world tells you that if you can just land that job, play that game, perform in that stadium, you will have "made it" and you will be happy. But ask anyone who has achieved that and they will tell you it doesn't feel any different than anything else they've done.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about how wanting something is more powerful than actually getting it. The feeling of wanting a cookie is better than actually eating the cookie. That's why we enjoy a vacation more before we've taken it, or a holiday before it's begun.

It reminds me of Tangled, when they're in the boat and Rapunzel is questioning if her dream will really be all she thinks. And what happens afterwards. The truth is, your dream will never be like you think. No matter what you want to do in life, it's still a job. It will be hard. There will be days you hate it. That's a fact.

The thing is, we weren't created to achieve that one thing in life, our "life's purpose" if you will, and then do nothing else. That's the point of Soul. Life isn't the big moments and important events.

Real life is in the day to day. Having coffee with a friend. Spending time with your family. Playing piano. Rewriting a scene. Driving home from work and seeing a glorious sunset.

God wants us to live every day to the fullest. We never know when it could all be over. Why take up all our precious time with worrying about the future when we could be out there, living life?

Takeaways as a Creator

I feel like learning that life is not about doing that one thing is harder as a creative. You think that if you can publish your book, hit 1 million subscribers on YouTube, or play concerts across America, then you'll have made it. That's what everyone tells us. We want to believe it because it sounds good.

Going back to Atomic Habits, he also talks about this same issue. We get so focused on achieving one goal, we don't think about the long term effects. What happens if we can no longer achieve that goal? Or we reach it? What comes next?

We weren't designed to be one thing, to pursue only one thing. Who we are is actually made up of the little things we do each day. If you sit down and write every day, then you're a writer. However, if you sit down and read about writing every day, you're a procrastinator.

Concrete goals are great. We need things like that to keep us motivated and moving forward. But don't get so caught up in achieving that one thing that you let the rest of your life pass you by.

That's why, thought I might have my own goals and ideas, I always try to prioritize my family and going out and doing things over doing more work. Work is not life. Living is life.

Please, keep dreaming. Keep working to bring those dreams to life. But never, ever, for get to live your life each day. God doesn't just want our big dreams. He wants our whole lives, from making your morning coffee to reading before bed each night. Life is so beautiful and what's to come is even more so.

I don't know if I fully articulated my point here, but I hope you got something from this post. Here are a few great videos that might help explain my point better.

Pixar's Soul: Finding Your Life Purpose in 8 Minutes

The Soul of Good Character Design

Have you seen Soul? What are your thoughts on this topic? Tell me in the comments.

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