How to Identify Your *Spark*: three Life Lessons from Pixar’s Movie, ‘Soul’

I recently watched the new Pixar film, ‘Soul’ starring Jamie Fox and a bunch of other famous actors lending their voices to characters.

The basic premise is that a jazz pianist dies suddenly, immediately after securing the gig that will be his big break but before he can play the show.

It is a feel good moving with much pathos and lessons to be learnt, Here are three that I took away from it…

1. Stop & Smell The Roses

Often, we’re encouraged to pursue our passions in life and, to be fully self-actualised, form our core purpose around those passions.

You’ll find that if you’re implementing this advice, it can become quite easy to become so immersed in your work and in tackling your life’s purpose, that you occasionally forget to slow down and mindfully enjoy the smaller things in life.

It is often when we are nose to the grind stone that we let our physical, alongside our mental, health slide out of control too.

For example, I have been completely immersed in reading, writing, learning, preparing and teaching two webinars this week that I fail to notice my partner working away, doing everything else that needed to be managed around our home.

I can be so busy pursuing our purpose that we fail to notice the majestic squirrels playing just outside my window, the flavour of the gum in my mouth, the aroma of the coffee I make in the morning, or the fact that I am serve 3 meals per day and do not say thank you.

In the movie, we see the character “22,” when they finally get to take a body for a test drive on planet Earth, experience a deep sense of joy and wonder from seemingly mundane activities such as eating a pepperoni pizza, listening to a musician in the subway, or seeing a child.

We also see souls who are so obsessed with their work and so immersed in “The Zone” while caught up in their passion become transported to an entirely new dimension that puts them into an out-of-body experience, which seems great, but also largely disconnects them from the wonders of their day-to-day physical existence.

So yes, have a passion in life. But don’t become so passionate and so caught up in an activity you enjoy that you forget to enjoy the small things in life.

I other words, practice mindfulness – the topic of one of the presentations I gave this week.

The little things are important too. We live on a magical planet chock-full of the wonders, and it’d be a shame to let them slip by because you’re so focused on and obsessed with creating maximum impact with your life.

Living life to the fullest and experiencing what it truly means to be a human requires elegantly combining the doing with the being.

2. The Grass Is Always Greener

In the movie, Joe lives his “dream moment” by experiencing the musical jazz performance of his life on stage.

You’d think he would be absolutely over the moon and finally fulfilled by having checked that box. But as he wanders out of the nightclub, he turns to his companions and asks, “What now?”

His saxophone-playing diva band leader Dorothea Williams proceeds to tell Joe the story of a small fish swimming up to a bigger, older fish and asking where the ocean is. The fish elder explains that they are in the ocean. But the little fish replies, “No, this is just water, I want the ocean!”

So what’s the moral of this tiny parable?

In short, we often don’t realise the satisfaction and meaning that already surrounds us because we’re so caught up in trying to reach a destination or make it to the top of some Mount Everest we’ve painted in our heads as the perfect destination.

We should perhaps stop and ponder whether, as we try to get out of the water to get into the ocean, we’ve actually already found and are immersed in the ocean.

For example, your quest for a job promotion may be sucking all the happiness out of your life because your current job may be exactly where you’re supposed to be right now, and what you were meant to do.

Especially in these times, be grateful you have a job that you can do.

Your constant search for the perfect social group, or team, or tribe may be blinding you to the fact that you’re meant to bloom exactly where you’ve been planted, which is the field you’re in right now.

Perhaps you should consider that you’ve already made it, and the next best thing for you to do is to simply savour each moment of where you are with mindfulness, gratefulness, and enjoyment.

This shouldn’t be used as an excuse to become passive and complacent in life, or to ditch the idea of constant improvement, but should instead be used as permission to become content with where you are right now, even if you have aspirations to become a better, more impactful person with each consecutive day.

3. Find Your Spark.

Part of the film involves the concept of a “Great Before,” where souls find their unique “spark” before venturing to Earth to be born as a baby and join the mortal coil.

At first, as I was watching Soul, I thought, similar to Joe, that the special “spark” every soul was searching for was the same as their purpose in life.

In other words, you must be fully self-actualised and working/living your dream job to experience true meaning and happiness as a human.

But it turns out that really isn’t the case. As one character named Jerry in the movie says,

“A spark isn’t a soul’s purpose! Oh, you mentors and your passions. Your purposes, your meanings-of-life. So basic.”

The lesson here is not quite to give up on, say, pursuing your dream job.

The lesson is to let go of the idea that having a dream job in which you are fully self-actualised and immersed in a magical marrying of your work and your passion is the only path to happiness and fulfilment.

Instead, your spark can be simple.

Your spark can be strumming the guitar after a long day at the office.

Your spark can be nightly family dinners and evening story time with your children.

Your spark can be cooking yourself a fantastic meal when you’ve returned from your daily routine of pushing paper and taking Zoom calls.

Your spark doesn’t have to contribute to society. It doesn’t have to earn you money. It doesn’t have to be moulded and contextualised within the idea of a life’s purpose.

This fits nicely with me personally. It means that I do not have to get the greatest joy and satisfaction from my 9-5. I can get joy from creating my own DJ set after a day of writing, researching, consulting, coaching, and doing all those other purposeful activities and simply mix music that no one else will likely hear…

… because it brings me joy..

… because I like to challenge myself to see if I can make is sound seamless and create my own live mashups

… because I adore the sensation as every sound wave vibrates every cell in my body.

I play not so that I can someday “make it” on YouTube or step on stage in front of throngs of adoring fans to play my next set, but rather because it simply makes me happy. It’s my spark.

Every meal I cook doesn’t have to be an Instagram sensation or take me one step closer to competitive network cooking show fame.

Every kettlebell I swing doesn’t have to get me that much closer to kicking someone’s ass in a kettlebell swing competition.

Every time I get dressed up to go out to a fancy dinner, it can be just for me and my enjoyment of the outfit —the colours, the fabrics against my skin, the scent of the fragrance I spray on my neck.

It can be not to impress others or get noticed or strike the fancy of some businessperson who may want to do a deal with me because I’m dressed nicely, it can simply be for the pure sake of the action itself.

So sure, you absolutely do need to have clearly identified and be pursuing your purpose in life, your “Ikigai,” your “Plan De Vida,” but you can also have enjoyments in life that are simply our personal spark.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨.

If both overlap, then great. You’re blessed. But if not, that’s OK too.

As Joe’s mother tells him in the film “passion doesn’t pay the bills.” I agree, or at least I agree that your passion doesn’t have to pay the bills.

So that’s it.

How about you?

Have you seen Soul?

Your optimally,
Scott

NB: This post, though personalised by me, was inspired and a lot of the content is by Ben Greenfield