So last night I watched the movie Soul with my son (he’s 2, and he ran in and out of the room every 7 minutes, so I’m sure he already knew what I’m about to tell you). The movie stars Jamie Foxx, who plays the role of Joe Gardner. Joe is a middle aged, part time music teacher for middle schoolers who have no desire to play whatsoever. He tries to tell them how he was in their shoes, until the first time he heard Jazz music being played live, and got lost in the music. His passion, his purpose, or so he thinks is the piano.
Joe has been a struggling musician his entire life, getting rejected from gigs in New York City throughout his career. He gets offered a full time teaching position, and doesn’t quite know how to react. Before he accepts, he gets a phone call from one of his former students, asking him if he can quickly make his way down to a studio and play the piano for Ms. Dorothea Williams (she’s legit). He ends up getting “in the zone” during his playing with her, essentially getting lost in the music and impresses her. He gets the gig! Just like that, Joe’s life has changed. Better yet, Joe’s life has just begun.
Filled with excitement on his way home, he isn’t paying attention to where he is walking, falls down a sewer and for lack of a better term, dies. He doesn’t think it is his time, I mean 2 minutes ago his real life was just beginning for crying out loud. He freaks, wrestles his way through space and time and ends up in The Great Before. This is where new souls get their personalities and their purpose before going to earth. While he’s here he ends up being a mentor to a soul, Soul 22, who does not want to find a purpose, and likes it just fine being in The Great Before.
Throughout the movie, he and 22 are trying to find ways to get Joe back into his body on earth. He gets to see his life from an outside perspective and thinks to himself how he has never truly lived. A lot more takes place obviously, but after seeing his life as meaningless, he actually gets to see that maybe his purpose all along wasn’t just music. Towards the end of the movie (spoiler alert) he ends up getting back into his body (after being brought back to earth through a cat) with the help of 22, playing the show of his dreams with Dorothea Williams. He gets done, and wonders why he doesn’t feel a certain way. He thought he would be ecstatic. You work your whole life to get to one point, and when you finally get there, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
After he gets home from the gig, there is a scene where I started to tear up. He has an epiphany, and it is one that each of us need to be reminded of.
How a disney movie changed my perspective on life
We need to remember that in this life, the end destination is not what brings us joy. We work so hard to achieve a goal like lose 20 pounds, or squat your body weight 10 times. But when we finally hit that goal, that feeling of accomplishment fades almost instantly. But the work put in during that time, and some of the experiences you had while working towards the goal is what makes it all worth it.
There are little moments within our life that at the time seem so small, but in reality are some of the best moments of our lives. You don’t truly notice until you take time to reflect. The present is called the present for a reason. It’s a gift! If we keep focusing on our goals for the future we will never be able to truly appreciate the beauty of what is going on right here, right now. Take a step back, take a deep breath and think about your life. None of us have meaningless lives, not even Joe Gardner. Just because you don’t think you are where you are supposed to be in life, in the gym, or in your job, does not mean that you don’t add value to this world.
Everyone has a purpose, and it may not be the one you have thought it to be all along. When you look back at the journey of your life, or the journey into fitness, don’t think for one second it did not have meaning. You have made relationships with people you never would have even spoken to by walking into a gym. By being vulnerable and eager to make a change in your life, you have met people and done more for yourself than you ever would have on your own!
That is truly why we love it here at Infinity Athletics. People come in with specific goals that they would like to achieve. Whether that's to hit a PR, get out of pain, or fit into their thong bikini (guilty), but end up staying for much different reasons. Those goals get hit, or sometimes they don’t, but the reasons they stay are for the relationships they’ve made along the way. Everyone begins on a common playing ground. The compassion, and at times the push is what helps us all along on our individual fitness journeys.
So today, make it the day you take a look back on your journey, and you really learn to appreciate all that you have done. The destination is not what brings us peace, it is the journey! Until we realize that, we will never find happiness and we will always be looking to fill a void that is not truly there. We appreciate you, now start learning to appreciate yourself and all that you have accomplished already.