Be practical before following your dreams

So many times we hear from people “follow your dreams” “don’t spend time doing things you don’t want to” “this is one life, live it the way you want”.

All these are glorifications. There’s no harm doing what you want to do, as long as you’re practical about it. The thoughts in your head won’t always pay electricity bills on time, nor will they make you buy gifts for your family. You’ll have to follow a systematic approach for making your dreams successful.

1. Think. What will happen when you’ll achieve your dreams – will you want to live this life or follow some other dreams? If it’s the latter then stop, don’t get into the viscous circle of chasing dreams just for the sake of doing something new every time. When you reach 50, then think of converting it into 60 and then 70; don’t just leave it all to start from 0 and then reach 10 in the same time that you would have reached 60 in the first place.

2. Plan. How much money will it take you to live a comfortable life? Do you have enough money to travel to places you want to? Will you be able to ensure a comfortable lifestyle for your family? Compared to IT it’s very hard to be in medical and involves many years of struggle before one starts making money. In medical, one has a more stable career compared to IT, a good doctor is respected for experience which doesn’t always happen to a simple software engineer. Some of my programmer friends with 10+ years experience are struggling to save jobs, as technologies have changed which fresh graduates are better at and they’re doing them at lesser salary as compared to seniors. Likewise, you can’t simply come to Mumbai and assume that you’ll get acting assignments from producers in a coffee shop – in 99% cases you’ll have to struggle with hundreds of auditions for years, before finally getting that big break.

3. Execute. An idea is worth nothing that remains on paper. IBM files many more patents than Apple, yet the latter is considered a more innovative company. Critics scoff at Apple users who stand in queue to buy the latest phone each year, a habit for which Apple itself is responsible. Because somewhere it’s things like these which ensure that Apple brings in recurring revenues, otherwise people will be contented using the same device for 3-4 years.

I repeat, following your dreams is not a problem, as long as you know what you are doing and have a systematic approach to achieve them.

At the end I’ll conclude by saying that doing hard things is a bliss. People who remain busy with productive work, are able to sow seeds which reap immense benefits in future. It’s commitment that matters, especially if the path to success takes longer than expected. So never be afraid of doing the difficult things in life.