All people have dreams and they try to chase their dreams in their best possible capacity. Many people use different methodologies to keep their energy level high in pursuit of their goals, adopt different techniques to enhance their probability of success and some people even compromise their morality and cheat others to get ahead. However, over a period of time, only few people actually achieve their dreams and most of us land up elsewhere, which are many times, completely different from what one initially targeted. Depending on individual judgment, some people feel happy with what they end up and some do not. And this is a consistent pattern in social sciences for any given generation of human beings.
So, given the fact that only ‘few’ people actually happen to achieve their dreams (or goals), one might ask, is this social phenomenon a bad thing? If we look at the bigger picture this is actually a good thing and this is the way it should be. And I see two important reasons why this is a good thing.
The first reason is that when people set their dreams, they are not aware of their potential and the thing which they are best suited for. More often than not our dreams are based on and are affected by social factors around us rather than based on honest and critical evaluation of our own abilities and strength and what we truly are passionate about. Also, in our early years of youth, we actually don’t know what our strengths and weaknesses are and what are our interests and what are things that turn us on and make us feel passionate about it. Some people realize this quite early, for some it takes more time and some of us just happen to end up with thing we really like.
The point that I am trying to make here is that, it is not necessary that the dreams or goals that we set for ourselves will bring best of us. We might actually be better suited for something else. Success is about doing your best in what you are best suited for. Hence, it is important that, at any given point of time, we should pursue and chase the things that we feel, to the best of our judgment; that we are actually interested in and are best suited for. And this is evident from life history of numerous great personalities humanity has witnessed. For example, Mahatma Gandhi might have become a very successful barrister but his real potential lied in as a great leader of Indian masses that made him an immortal figure in the annals of history. There are numerous such examples. All you need to do is pick up few great people and read their biography.
An important point here is that how do we know what is our actual interest and what are we best suited for? Different people have different way of approaching this. From my personal experience and experiences of my friends, I think we normally happen to get a ‘better’ idea of our strength, weaknesses and passion with experience and knowledge, and honest and critical self-evaluation and freeing ourselves from undue social and peer pressure.
Even with all these things on the plate, we cannot be completely sure of our judgment and there is always some amount of ambiguity. So how can we get our judgment right? Some people attribute it to luck; if you are riding on a good luck, then you will get right ideas in your mind which will lead you to right decision. My personal take on it is different. I am a theist with heart binding conviction. I believe that if you seek guidance from God with a pure heart and sincere intention, He will put right ideas in your mind or make circumstances that will eventually lead you to right decision. I have experienced it multiple times in my life. This is my personal conviction and everybody is free to have their own approach to it. Moreover, this idea of luck, God, free will etc. is a separate topic in itself and this blog is not about it.
The second reason is more around social implications. If we look at the dreams or goals that people of a given society have, we find interesting patterns. In study of social sciences we see that goals/dreams set by majority of people fall under a small set of things. For example, if we look at our Indian society, almost all the people either want to become an engineer or doctor or a cricketer or film star or celebrity etc. You may add few more things to this list and that’s it. Specially, if we look at our Indian middle class, except a few exceptions, everybody wants to become either a successful engineer or a doctor or an MBA.
Now suppose that, in a hypothetical scenario, everyone achieve their dream or goals they set for themselves. How will the resulting society look like then? Just imagine and you will get your answer. For a healthy, balanced and progressive society, we need people with talent, skill and expertise in all the fields. And, indeed, we humans born with different ability, skill and talent in right proportion required for a healthy society. However, as said previously our choice of our goals and dreams are shaped more by social factors than our own capabilities. Hence, by law of nature or by design of God (whatever you may call it), it is good that different people end up differently with their dreams, thereby, eventually leading to a balanced society, a requisite for humans to continue surviving.
Hence, I think we should not be sad and worried if we don’t see thing falling in place for us as we don’t know what is best for us and also we should not get too complacent when we see things going right for us as it may still be less than the best of our capabilities.
I will end this blog with following two verses from Al’ Qur'an [1] which I have personally experienced in my life multiple times:
“…And they planned and Allah also planned, and Allah is the Best of planners” [8:30]
“And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.” [2:216]
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[1] This is my personal pursuit of inspiration. For those who believe in Qur'an you might find it inspiring and for those who don’t believe in Qur'an, don’t be offended. I am not patronizing you. Just take it in whatever way or form you would like to.
