Are You Following Your Dreams Or Someone Else's?
Nishank
Are You Following Your Dreams Or Someone Else's?
By Arlene F. Harder
(Source: http://www.learningplaceonline.com/change/purpose/dreams.htm )
If you're not sure of your purpose, you're probably letting another person control your life. Let me explain by using a brief analogy.
Sailing in Circles
Imagine you're an amateur sailor and for years have listened to guys in the sailing club talk about countries they have visited. Then one day a sailor tells you about a place far across the sea to the west where the cost of living is very low. There is nothing particularly attractive about that place, but since your paycheck doesn't seem to stretch as far as it once did, and the town where you live is getting a bit overcrowded, you decide that country would suit you fine. So you spend most of your savings on provisions for the trip and save a little for getting settled in a new country. Then you get into your boat and set your compass for due west.
The second day out, you notice another boat sailing in your direction. As it pulls alongside, you tell the captain where you're going. "Well," he says, "I've been there and I admit it's a bit less expensive than some other countries, but the scenery is dull as a gray rock. Now, me, I like scenery and if you do, too, then you'd love a country that lies far to the north." Since you appreciate beauty, you convince yourself that you could learn to be a bit tighter with your money and that economy isn't all that important -- and change your compass to due north.
After sailing for a few days, you see a ship coming toward you. As you exchange greetings with the crew, you learn about yet another land, far to the south, where the climate is "absolutely wonderful all year long." It is true, they tell you, that the cities are a bit overcrowded, but the perfect weather more than makes up for it. Afraid winters in the north will be too cold and that it really wasn't so bad living in a busy city, you decide that comfortable weather is an important criteria for choosing a place to live -- and once again reset your compass, this time toward the south.
We could continue this analogy endlessly, for there are always people who have opinions on what makes a place desirable. Consequently, if you couldn't decide the standards that are most important to you -- and if you don't stick with them -- you'd use up all your provisions and never arrive in any country.
Making Choices
Unfortunately, that is the way many people live their lives. They make their decisions based on what others tell them they should do. Oh, they have some idea of what they like and dislike, but because they haven't fully explored what is most important to them, their compass never points in the direction that fulfills their personal needs. They are doomed to play the game of life under someone else's rules.
Every day you're bombarded by the strongly held opinions of television and radio commentators and newspaper editorials. Friends and family add their opinions on every topic under the sun. Solicitors interrupt your dinner by coming to your door or calling you. They want you to buy their product, donate to their cause, or join their religion.
For the most part, these people sincerely believe that your life will be better if you follow their course of action. But whether following their advice would be wise or foolish, you cannot possibly set your compass to go in all those directions at the same time. Yet because life offers us many more choices today than we've ever had, this problem is increasingly common.
Just how can you know your purpose in life, the best setting for your personal compass? Well, if you're to be the sailor on the ship of your life, even though you may listen to the guidance of others from time to time, you won't get anywhere until you decide what's most important to you, the criteria you will use to choose your actions from day to day.
I suggest that the best way is to awaken that part of you that already knows what feels best for you, even though you may currently be out of touch with this center of awareness. However, when you take time to listen to the quiet direction of your heart, to the core of you own being, your purpose will unfold as you live consciously day by day.
You can also discover what truly gives you deep satisfaction by using two simple techniques. One is recalling times in the past when you had a strong sense of the direction you should take and, even though you weren't sure how things would turn out, followed your intuition -- especially those times when things turned out very well. The other technique is answering simple, but important, questions you may not have thought to ask yourself.
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Regards,
Nishank