why we ought to pay attention to our dreams & desires

How having different desires as individuals helps humanity:

A while ago I was speaking with one of my biology professors. I was struggling with staying engaged in the class material and asked him to tell me why he enjoyed studying genes so much, hoping that it would give me some perspective so I could start enjoying the course too.

The thing that became apparent in our conversation was that my professor simply loved the field of study itself. And it was obvious that no matter how much I tried to rationalize things or to discipline myself, I just did not have enough interest in the subject material the way he did.

At that point, I was reminded of how lucky we are as humans, that there are some people who are so in love with a certain subject of study or a career path, that they end up pursuing it deeply, and actually make significant progress in that area which helps out humanity as a whole.

If everyone thought that cellular biology was not interesting enough to study in-depth the way I did, then maybe we wouldn’t have treatments for a number of diseases, simply because no one was curious and patient enough to study those problems and figure out their solutions.

Before I had this realization, I used to push myself to develop my interest in certain subjects so I could do well in classes. Now I am realizing that love cannot necessarily be forced. It has to come naturally. All we can do is try different things and see which things we gravitate towards and keep going back to.

This is a good thing because it can help you understand that just like other people, you can have a unique role to play in this lifetime. I can’t force myself to become a great biologist if my heart is against it. So maybe I can just leave that job for other fellow humans and find something else that’s a better fit for me.

To put it simply, our love for things and our desires that cross our hearts are important signals for us. They can guide us in choosing our life paths and how we make contributions to team humanity.

Why we ought to keep our dreams alive:

Similarly, an idea or a desire to see an idea come to fruition can be so important. Imagine if there were a few people on this planet who felt the desire to become an Olympic athlete.

Imagine no one ever acted on those desires because people around them thought it was not normal or realistic to think that way. Perhaps, we would never have gotten any Olympic athletes after all!

I think an interesting thing to note is that not everyone feels the desire to become an Olympic athlete in their lifetime. Perhaps the fact that you yourself are experiencing a pull towards a certain field of study, a career path, or a life choice, is important in and of itself.

I felt the desire to write, so I started writing. But I am aware that everyone around me might not feel the desire to write to begin with. Maybe it’s important that we at least pay attention to what our hearts are desiring, and what hopeful or adventurous ideas our minds are coming up with.

Nurturing our audacity to then follow our dreams is another matter. We must first ensure that we don’t squash down our own dreams, especially if life has given us the opportunity to at least give our dreams a shot. Imagine all the things we could be or could try to do if we honoured that voice in our hearts!

Perhaps I will not become a scientist after all. But whatever I must do or become to make my contribution to team humanity, I will have to find out after experimenting and listening to my heart instead of forcing myself to love things.