If you’ve just seen the Fish Story from Pixar’s Soul, then there’s a chance you might be feeling mixed emotions and asking yourself, “what does it all mean?”.
That’s what I did. I had to go back and watch the ending a second time just to try and understand what it all meant.
Although it’s an animation made for children, Soul is filled with so many hidden life lessons that even the most mindful adults will be left confused about.
One of those life lessons is in the Fish Story.
A Quick Summary
In case you haven’t seen the film, here’s a quick summary.
The main character Joe, is a single, middle aged, school music teacher.
Joe spent his entire life chasing his passion and dream.
His passion? Jazz. His dream? To play the piano alongside a high profile musician.
"It's my reason for living... I'm just afraid that if I die today, then my life would have amounted to nothing."
After all his struggles, the day finally comes and he gets his chance. He has a gig that very night.
The twist? He dies, well, kind of.
Joe spends the majority of the movie refusing to pass on into the afterlife, and instead fights his way back to life.
He makes it back just in time, and plays the gig he’s been dreaming of his entire life.
After the gig with the high profile musician (Dorothea), Joe feels confused and possibly disappointed. He says to Dorothea “I’ve been waiting on this day for my entire life… I thought I’d feel different…”
The Fish Story
Dorothea responds to Joe by telling him a story – The Fish Story.
I heard this story about a fish.
He swims up to this older fish and says, ‘I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.’
‘The ocean?’ says the older fish, ‘That’s what you’re in right now.’
‘This? ‘ says the young fish, ‘This is water. What I WANT is the ocean!’
So what does it actually mean? I’ve had a few different thoughts about it, and I’d like to share them all with you.
But for now let’s focus on the first one.
#1 - The Perception Theory
The first way I interpreted it was one about our own perception toward a goal or state of mind.
We can get so caught up chasing one particular goal, without properly understanding what that goal actually means to us. It could be anything, our career, relationships, wealth, success, love, happiness, or something else.
For me, it was happiness.
I was so caught up on my goal of being “happy”, so focused and busy working towards that goal. Until one day something hit me, like a punch right to the face.
It knocked me to the ground. And when I got back up, I was so confused and overwhelmed. Questioning what happiness actually meant to me, and feeling helpless by not being able to answer myself.
My goal up until that point was ‘happiness’. What that meant to me was doing things that brought me joy and made me happy. Things like going camping, hiking, to love and be loved, spending time with friends and loved ones, playing the ukulele and piano, building businesses, and trying to inspire and help others.
I got so caught up in this goal toward happiness. I put so much focus on being ‘happy’, that I lost focus of what that actually meant. When an opportunity came up that made me think I could be ‘happier’, I fell into a rabbit hole that inadvertently made me feel the least happy and most depressed that I’ve ever felt.
The confusion absolutely destroyed me. I felt like I was torn in two. I was overwhelmed with self doubt, questioning myself and my values, and feeling emotionally paralyzed.
I stopped being able to function. I couldn’t bring myself to complete the most basic daily tasks.
I felt as if I had built a house of cards and was standing right at the top of it screaming my lungs out in joy, only to have it all suddenly pulled out from under me.
So for me, I was already happy. I was already swimming joyfully in the water.
But I kept chasing this state of being happy. Leading me to wanting to be more “happy”, or a higher state of being “happy”. This was my ocean.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the water and the ocean are both made up of the same thing. The only difference is our perception.
We can become so focused on trying to find the ocean, that we lose sight of the fact that we are already swimming in water. We can end up taking the water for granted, not taking the time to be thankful or grateful for what we are already so fortunate to have.
Do we really want to strive toward this social construct we call an ocean, or can we just be grateful for being in water?
What do you think? I’d love to hear what your thoughts are about the Fish Story.
Drop me a comment and share your thoughts below.
Wow! So inspiring, Jackson!
Yes, you’re right! Many people chase happiness only to end up depressed and empty-hearted because in trying to look for it, they fail to appreciate and enjoy the journey called life. Life is not perfect. There are trials, challenges and struggles. But oftentimes, these trials/challenges will lead us to discover more of ourselves and do things we never know we are capable of doing. In short, we become a better, stronger person after every trial. So, yes, to find happiness, we need to start by being grateful and by learning to ride the “waves of life.”
“We become a better, stronger person after every trial”.
I’ve never met someone as positive as you, you’re always such an inspiration! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me and everyone else.
Hopefully your words will help and inspire others as much as they’ve helped and inspired me. Thank you! 🙂
i really like the thoughts of the story. all of us has a goal to achieve to become happy but we forgot to cherish small things which leads us to our bigger goal that we think that makes us happier and successful but in our way towards achieving there are hindrances and sometimes we fail. we never know that those failures will give us lesson to appreciate things.
It’s so nice to hear from you Liz, I hope things are going well for you!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’m sure your words will help bring clarity to others facing challenges along their own journeys 🙂