I don't want to eat

"You can't eat dreams for breakfast, Joey"

"Then I don't wanna eat"

I just finished the movie 'Soul', a 2020 animated film, and I don't think I'm getting over it anytime soon.

Not only was it an interesting film, but it also deeply resonated with me, and I want to unpack a lot of things especially the quote I began with.

To give a basic summary, 'Soul' is a movie about Joe who is a middle-school band teacher, passionate about jazz. He feels his life doesn't have meaning and views that having the opportunity to be a jazz musician would bring meaning to his life but has his perspective changed.

I believe that us humans have something we are passionate about. Whether it's something like baking, public speaking, sports etc. There's something we see ourselves continously doing and enjoying. Jazz was something Joe was passionate about and he saw himself being a jazz musician rather than a middle-school band teacher.

The quote at the beginning of this article was Joe's mum telling him that he can't eat ( make a living) dreams (Jazz) for breakfast. Joe replied saying that then he doesn't want to eat, implying that he would rather pursue something he is passionate about than continue with a career that disconnects him from himself.

There is a human desire to be successful. I have it, Joe has it, and many others have it too. Sometimes, people then dictate what success means in terms of career: being a rich doctor, lawyer, business person or so. Many people pick careers that make them secure so they can be successful and then end up with a job that disconnects them from their soul.

Yes, there are people who are passionate about medicine and go on to be successful doctors and people who are passionate about law and become amazing lawyers, but sometimes it feels like there is a blueprint for things that determines how successful we will be.

Despite there being successful people doing 'successful careers', there is also a percentage of them who aren't passionate about the type of careers they find themselves in. They spend their lives waking up to a cycle of activities that they are so lost in. Some are lucky to come to a moment of realization and say, "What have I been doing with my life?".

So, I don't want to eat. And I'm not saying I don't want to be successful or have a successful career. I just don't want my life experience to be determined by that one successful thing when there a lot of things I'm passionate about and these things make up my experience of life. I don't want to be so caught up and obsessed with achieving success or my goals that I suddenly forget that ordinary things bring meaning to life's experiences.

The biggest lesson from Soul (2020) is:

Your purpose is not the same thing as your life’s purpose.

Joe spends most of the movie believing that once he becomes a professional jazz musician, his life will finally feel complete. But when he gets the opportunity, he has dreamed about, he realizes that achieving the dream doesn't magically make life meaningful.

The film ultimately suggests that life isn't something you have to “figure out” before you can start living it. Meaning can be found in ordinary experiences like conversations, music, food, friendship, walking outside, helping someone, being curious, simply being alive or simply engaging in those things that you're passionate about even if you can't eat them for breakfast.

Our spark is not our purpose because merging our spark (what makes us excited about being alive) with our purpose (something we may choose to pursue) can make us forget that life itself is bigger than any single career, achievement, talent, or dream. You can want to become a lawyer and still love writing. You can want to become a journalist and still find meaning in a conversation with a friend. You can have a dream without turning the rest of your life into a waiting room for that dream.

I still want to eat. I still want to dream. I just don't want to spend my whole life waiting for one dream to feed me.