“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
“Don’t chase the money, follow your heart.”
“Find your unique purpose; that’s where you’ll find happiness and success.”
At some point in our lives, we’ve all heard variations of these phrases. They’re often repeated by speakers at graduation ceremonies or motivational seminars.
Maybe the phrase ‘follow your dreams’ is a little cliché, but I’ve always believed in it. I’ve always stood firm in the fact that when you chase what you love, passion-wise, you’ll end up the happiest you’ve ever been.
Our dreams make us unique, individual, complex humans. Our dreams bring us out from depression, from loneliness, from fear. It connect us to the world, help us find others like us, help us see the world differently. It can also bring us pure bliss, and can sometimes bring us into love with others.
Highly-successful people from all walks of life echo these words often. They inspire us to chase our biggest dreams. They encourage us to examine our souls and ask ourselves, “What was I truly born to do?”. We’re told that if we just find the answer to that question, everything else will fall into place and life will be a lot more fulfilling for us.
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, emphasized the importance of finding your purpose when, in a speech delivered to Stanford University’s 2005 graduating class, he famously said, “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. … Everything else is secondary.”
After meeting so many people who have no clue what they’re here for and how to live with meaning, I’ve realized if you know what it is that makes you feel alive, you are one of the lucky ones.
Dreams do not like to be quantified and work outside of the realm of logic. Treat it with curious devotion and the nature of dreams has its own magic which will find you. Your destiny is already set. I feed my dreams through gentle nurturing and quiet attention. It is faith – not discipline – that will bring your dreams to you. Follow the dreams; don’t set course for them with careful planning and detailed attention, for then it becomes a task. It is the process of discovery that fills us with such joy we cannot bear to let it be forgotten.
Personal experience has shown me it can take years to find the courage to follow your heart and be honest about what you want to do. And so should you because following your heart and chasing your dreams is a calling that cannot and should not be ignored.