Dreams to fulfill

WE have been firsthand witness to the fact that we pursue careers that have no inclination to our dreams. Our choices of who we want to be are shaped by looking up to our family, relatives and friends. This is not a wrong thing to do as it forms an essential part of our identity formation- to relate to others. But, the next step of identity formation is where most of us go astray or very normative. We become passive in looking into our own wishes and often hit short term goals when in life, it is the long term goals that matter and last. The reason a majority of the population of any country consists of ‘Average’ citizens is because fewer people realize their purpose in life. It is a very tricky thing, but it takes a while for us to realize that we are all gifted with a skill and the mastery of that skill is an industry of its own. You must have heard of your superiors tell you that ‘everybody is born of equal intelligence’, we refuse, thrash and abandon this idea because we think it is remotely idiotic to even think of ourselves on par with luminaries like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud,  Georg Cantor, to name a few. This is also the reason many of us fail to have role models that are a real example of who we want to be. Many of us want to be like Bill Gates because he has money and fame but, I think many of us can be like Bill Gates but we should dream of becoming like Steve Jobs who has, even in the face of many adversities, losses and betrayal stood the test of time and emerged victorious. Even past his demise, he is immortalized in the minds of many who cared to know about his life.

We think that these people had success because they were in the right place at the right time, but that is not the only prerequisite to becoming successful. A few months ago, I read a short story that captured the essence of success. Its point was that you should want success so badly that it should be like every breath that you take. On the journey, we might face countless obstacles and betrayals and we might even be alone because in reality, not many people would like to be in company of a person who is very passionate about success. These will be the times of several litmus tests and if you give up any time in between then you’ll only have to start from scratch and you lose the chance of being successful when you were just a step closer to achieving your dream, but you quit.

 “Believe that things will work out… follow your intuition and curiosity… trust your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path… You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future… The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it… Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

                                                                                                                                            - Steve Jobs