As You Seek, Don’t Forget To See

How a late basketball great, K-pop star, and kid’s movie offer insights into the meaning of life

I was just passing time on YouTube when the bombshell news dropped. “Kobe Bryant Dead in Helicopter Crash,” headlines read, all of which were corroborated way too quickly.

Disbelief. I got out of my chair and flipped through my closet to find my Kobe jersey. Wearing it, I went about my day — dog park, grocery shopping, cooking — all while my mind was mostly blank.

It didn’t truly hit me until later that evening when I decided to tune into the NBA. Before one of the games, the broadcast featured a Kobe Bryant tribute, a montage of all his best highlights and quotes. Watching that video, all the emotions came rushing in. And for the first time, I and many others broke down crying to the death of someone we had never even met, but who touched our lives deeply. This was, without a doubt, one of the worst tragedies in modern sports history.

However, I found repose and inspiration in one thing: that Kobe did not regret a single minute of what limited time he had on this world. Because while he spent his life seeking greatness, he also did not forget for a moment to see and appreciate his own journey.

The powerful antithesis of “seeking” versus “seeing” is an idea that initially popped into my head right here on Medium, and that inspired this article. Do you identify as a hustler, a go-getter, always seeking accomplishment? Kobe, Rosé, and Pixar offer us three pieces of pop culture that remind us that purely seeking achievement can sometimes be mindless and ultimately unsatisfying, while noticing and seeing what you already have has always proven to be the more fulfilling exercise.

Mamba Mentality

All around the world, fans of Kobe Bryant have been enamored by his “Mamba Mentality,” the philosophy that guided his legendary career and life. The Mamba Mentality is frequently associated with an unwavering competitive spirit and a tireless work ethic.

As a result, it often gets advertised as a mindset for seeking success in a particular area. But there’s more to it. Here are Kobe’s Five Pillars of the Mamba Mentality:

• Resiliency
• Fearlessness
• Relentlessness
• Obsession
• Passion

I highlight “passion” not because it’s more important than the others, but because I think this is where Mamba Mentality most often gets misused. Some people attribute any form of painstaking work ethic as embodying the Mamba Mentality. But if you’re not passionate about what it is you’re relentlessly, fearlessly, resiliently, and obsessively chasing, you are missing one crucial pillar!

While the other four pillars are key for anyone seeking mastery and success, passion grounds you enough to be able to just see and enjoy the journey. Just listen to Kobe talk about the passion pillar in a 2016 TED talk:

“The passion came from a love for the game. I loved everything about it. You know, the smell of the ball. The smell of brand new sneakers. The sound the ball makes when it hits the ground. Sneakers squeaking. The ball going through the net. All those things I love. And so the passion comes from that. Once you have that love, you just want to be a part of this thing, all the time.”

Kobe’s response struck a chord, giving us a glimpse into his mindfulness habits as he took on the grind to be the best. He didn’t just blindly seek greatness. He was incredibly mindful in seeing all the little things that made his journey worthwhile.

“On The Ground” — Rosé

K-pop queen Rosé from BLACKPINK recently released her solo debut album R, which featured a song called “On The Ground.” Beneath the musical composition were some of the most personal and insightful lyrics I’ve heard from Rosé. She sings,

I worked my whole life Just to get right, just to be like “Look at me, I’m never coming down” I worked my whole life Just to get high, just to realize Everything I need is on the ground.

The song is about her own journey to stardom. This pre-chorus is my favorite part, where she realizes that the success she has worked so hard to achieve is not what truly gives her purpose and fulfillment in life.

This is perhaps jarring to hear, since people tend to over-glamorize celebrities. For the average Joe, they seemingly do “have it all” — a huge fanbase, more money than they could ever need, and the most attractive and influential friends — but even with all that, Rosé and many other celebrities remind us that a lot of this is just fluff. “You find out that your gold’s just plastic,” she sings in an earlier verse.

This is perhaps best illustrated through the song’s frequent references to a second “you” character, which is actually Rosé’s younger self before she became famous:

Just drove by your house So far from you now But I figured it out Everything I need is on the ground

Rosé here is back at her childhood home, telling her younger self how “far apart” they now are due to all that she has since sought and accomplished. However, despite all her growth, her core self remained the same, and she is now able to see that everything she really needed was already within her all along.

“Soul” — Disney Pixar

(I’ll try to spoil as little of the movie as possible, but this is still a warning of possible spoilers ahead.)

Nowadays, I can’t help but shed a few tears on every new Pixar release, and “Soul” is no exception. At its core, it is yet another beautiful animated film created by masterful storytellers, entertaining the kids and moving the adults. “Soul” focuses on the age-old existential question: “what is the meaning of life?”

The story follows the life of Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher who finally lands the gig of his dreams in the New York jazz scene, only to accidentally fall down a pothole to his supposed death before being able to take the stage. A bunch of crazy, Pixar-esque events later, he returns to life and manages to play in the gig. It’s a smashing success, and Joe thought this would bring him higher fulfillment… but strangely, Joe still feels like something is missing.

Cue one of those trademark Pixar tear-jerking climaxes. Back in his apartment, Joe reaches into his pocket and fishes out some of the things that 22, another soul that temporarily inhabited his body, had collected throughout the day. Each seemingly ordinary item triggered memories of the way 22 had enjoyed life on Earth in Joe’s body, in a way that Joe himself never did.

Among the items were a pizza crust, which reminded him of how tasty a slice of pizza can be; a lollipop from a barbershop, which reminded him of the joy of getting a fresh cut; and a fallen leaf, which reminded him of the simple beauty of falling leaves in the sunset. He laid them all out on the piano, and drawing inspiration from them, played a slow, melancholic tune as he replayed his life’s events in his head. In this powerfully poignant scene, Joe has an epiphany as he realizes what’s he’s been missing from his life isn’t a prestigious gig, but in seeing and enjoying the little things.

“Soul” is a beautiful tale about how to find meaning in our lives. I think it is the perfect epitome of the “seeking” versus “seeing” concept in that it explicitly portrays Joe as an extremely passionate musician, who is not able to feel true fulfillment even after securing his dream gig. Rather, his constant seeking for his next big break ended up blinding him to life’s tiny pleasures. Once he had his epiphany, he was able to see all the things he had taken for granted.

Perhaps you are on your own journey in life, striving to achieve success in your own craft. Have you been paying attention to all the little things along the way? Have you been so laser-focused on your destination that you forgot to stop and simply see?