“Follow your passion”; “If you want something, go get that!”; “Follow your dreams”… everyone has romanticized and rose-tinted that idea a little too much, don’t you think? Okay, let me tell you a story:
Image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
A college freshman loved making new tunes. His friends thought he was a potential rock star. His parents, on the other hand, were against the whole idea of taking up an unconventional career path, but he did it anyway. He toiled day in and day out; produced some extraordinary numbers, and… nothing happened. No one was interested in his kind of music. No one bought his records. Zilch! So, he made a comeback to the world of the ‘working dead!’
Image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
This is the story of every second person in any part of the world. But we never talk about such stories! Why? Because it is not a yarn of success! But then again he did follow his dreams, didn’t he? He had a great time doing what he loved doing. Maybe even after he joined forces with the mango people, he kept creating music every night after work, right? Why does one have to be totally crushed when things don’t work out? Well, you at least tried your hand at it. So many don’t even get to do that. They spend the rest of their days wretched at the thought of, “What if?!” And let me tell you one thing, my friend, there can be no worse feeling than regret!
Image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
Suggested read: When you leave the one you love to pursue your true calling
I once had a conversation with a fervent trekker. She is a teacher, and hiking is a passion that breathes life into her otherwise “humdrum existence.” I asked her how it felt to “conquer peaks?” She looked at me, smiled thoughtfully, and what she said after that, changed the way I look at success. She said, “Though it is the surmounting bit that keeps you going, once you reach the pinnacle, you realize that it was the hiking that was exhilarating and sensational! And then you challenge yourself to yet another expedition, another zenith. The learning always takes place during the ascension and the decent, not during the moment of feat.”
I am not trying to drive home the idea that success does not matter or that following your dreams is always a win-win situation though apparently, you may be perceived as a loser. I am trying to address a more serious issue here; the issue of the ideas of success and that of following your dreams, as not being one, but two different, and more than often, unrelated things. While success is external, satisfaction comes from within. What you do should bring you fulfillment and happiness, which is in your hands. Accomplishments and achievements cannot be controlled by us. They are incidental and depend on so many things which are beyond our influence. So what is the point of worrying about the latter?!
Image source: Google, copyright-free image under Creative Commons License
Follow your dreams because it makes you happy, not because of what awaits you in the end. Moreover, any passion cannot ever have an end. It is a process, don’t you think? Whether people think it is of some value or not, is their concern, not yours. Hence the fact that following your dreams becomes frustrating is because we make it that way. We ruin it with our doubts, our expectations; our worries of whether it will bear fruit or not… This idea also puts us in a very important position as parents. We not only need to tell children that they can do what their heart tells them to, but also be prepared for failures, plenty of them. Happiness was never an outcome, but a means, a process. ☺
Featured image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
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