What the 2008 Disney x Pixar movie Wall-E got right about humans
I’m pretty sure I’m offending someone in the world with the saying, “Soft people don’t do hard things.” Hell, I have it printed out on my wall behind me for all my videos and business meetings. Oh well. It’s true.
I say this a lot in my head whenever I’m about to make a relatively small, lazy decision. Actually, I sing it.
But is David Goggins right? Should we all stay hard all of the time? When is a good time to be soft? Do many soft, meaningless, lazy decisions add up to a life more blubbery than a seal? Let’s unpack this really quick to see.
Example: I live in an apartment building. The stairs are actually closer in proximity to where I’m usually coming from than it is to get the elevator. I’ve timed it, and taking the stairs down is 2x faster than taking the elevator. Taking the stairs up is about 50% faster than the elevator. This is pure logic here and zero emotions. Oh, and I live on the 8th floor! What about the people on the 2nd and 3rd floors? More softness.
The statement is for me to remember that when something is mildly irritating, to push through it. Don’t be soft.
You can take the statement “Soft people don’t do hard things” as a prompt to do more challenging things because, let’s be 💯 here… our lives are softer than whipped cream on top of marshmallows. If you’re reading this and care about running, you most likely have everything you need to live a relatively risk-free and safe life, yet we don’t do a few key hard things to make sure we stay fit for the long run. We take shortcuts everywhere and look for all the hacks in half the time.
But what about rest days? What about relaxing and recharging? That’s gotta be an okay time to be soft, right?
Yes – Rest, sleep, and general recovery are crucial — but that’s actually mentally hard for most to do. Stepping away from things for a short or long while is necessary. And that is the opposite of soft. Most people go too hard with their training and don’t respect the slower pace or the rest days. And boom, they are injured, burned out, or sick. That’s also being soft because it’s mentally lazy even though you are physically doing something hard. That may have sounded like a bowl of word salad, but… it’s true.
You know what happens when you don’t use your muscles and push them? Atrophy — which is when your body goes, “Welp, guess you don’t need these; I’ll put these resources somewhere else.” Before you know it, you’re losing lean muscle mass and gaining body fat, and your bones are now soft and brittle.
After 700 years of floating on a ship with zero worries, the citizens of B&L didn’t have to walk or do anything else. They just laid back with everything that was done for them and complained about being bored. Everyone just became these blobs of unproductive human flesh—zero hard, all soft.
Do you still think soft people don’t do hard things? Tell me why I’m wrong.
