So- around the 1700’s people would pay big money to just RENT a pineapple. You didn’t get to cut it or eat it- just display it. I’m not saying that is going to make a comeback but if you’ve been to the grocery store or bought eggs recently maybe this kid is ahead on a lucrative career trend. While I like their energy, my words of wisdom to this young pup or really any out there might be: you never know where like will take you. You never w who you might become. So no matter how sure or dedicated you are, you should always have something to call a plan B. Go ahead and give all you have, put everything into your dreams, but make sure that if your dreams don’t come true or you wake up one day and what was a dream now looks like a nightmare or you have a new dream, that you aren’t left in a place where you don’t have options.
As a teen, my goal was to research genetic crop improvements to improve yield. Since then I've worked with connectivity software, mobile base stations, car & truck development, underwater drones, missiles & more. And now I have reeducated myself as an archaeologist. The river twists & turns & you don't know where you might end up. Just follow your heart <3
That’s a heck of a journey. I had a rather twisty path through careers in life but I’ll save the details. Pursuing my dream was made as impossible as anything can be, and when I found my second true passion I decided that while the odds being against me wasn’t enough to deter me, the truth was that after dipping my toes I realized I would rather make it a hobby than a career as it took my enjoyment away when I had to do it as a profession. I do think there is validity in following one’s heart in their career, but I also don’t think it’s for everyone. My own decision was to instead of pursuing work I had passion for, to pursue work I was well suited for and paid well with a degree of flexibility. A balance- unless one has no other options, I don’t think one should dread going to work, but there is a degree of privilege in being able to say: “I hate this job. I’m leaving and doing XYZ..”
To that end I personally have taken a pragmatic approach- I don’t need to love my job or even find it particularly interesting. I set my mind to a path that would make me as much money as possible and allow me the time to use that money to do things I really love on my terms. The work to me isn’t what is important- every job has a purpose, people relying on you. If you approach your work with purpose and care for the people who rely on what you are providing, you can still be engaged and dedicated and fulfilled, not just “punching a clock,” but you can choose careers which don’t speak to your heart but pay very well. I am not criticizing you or anyone else or saying this is the only way to think or behave- just that there are different strokes for different folks.
So in my logic, the things my heart wants me to do are not things that would pay my bills or allow me to do the things I love most on my terms. Many people have passions that just aren’t realistically marketable. There is almost always fine print to “follow the heart,” we can apply this across more professions but I’ll use actor as that one is generally well known and understood. If your heart wants you to act- your odds of success let alone even having a career or being able to pay bills are very low. If Tom Cruise gave up his life would likely be very different, but most people who pursue acting don’t end up like him. If you want to act, you don’t have a whole lot of options- especially ones that you can make a career living off of. Is that need to act greater than your need or want for other things? For some yes. For others no, and for most it doesn’t matter because they will have to learn to live without being a professional actor.
Now, the second caveat is “sniff the fumes” or justify justify. “I’m a production assistant so I work with actors and that’s basically the same…” well… mmmm. Depends. “If you like acting a career in sales or politics is following your heart because they are performative and involving becoming a character and…” mmmmm….. maybe? It depends on how literal we want to take it or how badly we want or need some specific thing to be happy- there is usually some element of selling out or settling unless someone has a very practical and grounded heart or loose justifications. “I want to help people!” Well… I mean… sometimes helping can be more harming than helpful, reality can be cruel and jobs and fields often have certain contradictions or unpleasantness or “behind the curtain” aspects.
So I mean- I am all for it if people have a dream or a passion and want to pursue it, even obsessively. Some of our greatest culture and science and more have come from people with a strong, even unwavering conviction to follow their heart. I also don’t think that’s for everyone though. I think that not everyone will cure Cancer and not everyone needs to, we can’t all be astronauts of course, and sometimes most of the value in achieving or having comes simply from the weight we place on what we had to do to get there and not in what we have actually gotten in return. I personally favor letting the heart sit on the brains lap and steer the ship, but the brain is always ready to take the wheel. As many windy paths show, on a sea of possibilities you can trim the sails and steer the boat and that does have an effect on where you end up, but no one can ever predict and react so well to the sea as to follow a perfect line.
We can be blown off course or washed up on the rocks even with the best of planning and sailing- so I think a degree of flexibility is important for most people. There is always that statistically anomaly who will set a course and no matter what the obstacles or complications they decide they will see it through, and there is always that person who can float on the currents without a thought and almost always find themselves in pleasant waters and fair shores.
Most people fall in the middle, and the less privilege or power one has, the more it can be important to figure out what you really want and try to find the way for YOU and your specific circumstances to get it. Of course no one always gets what they want, and sometimes we find ourselves happier for it. We find things we didn’t know we wanted or happy in a life that isn’t what we planned. part is in wether our happiness comes from a journey or an achievement.
For someone who gets joy from achieving, the work and suffering that might come from going to Mars would make it worth it. For those who take joy from the journey- start to end that journey probably sucks. Its full of disappointments and politics and money and long stretches of boredom capped off with a novel ride that likely gets old long before it is over and then likely a death on a far away world alone with rusty rocks and a lot of hard work in between. To say “I did it!” Or to further humanity. Those are achievements- noble and necessary. I figure that following one’s heart at its best really means to understand yourself, to know what it is you want from life and try to live a life that gives you the best shot at the most of what you want and the least of what you don’t.
If you want to fly fighter jets your best bets are to join the military or become FILTHY rich. Neither path is very easy or statistically likely to end up with you in a jet. So the real question is what it is that makes you want to fly a fighter jet and what are ways you can get that more assuredly and more regularly?
It’s complicated for sure- but I agree to live life with your heart, and each person just has the puzzle of figuring out the practical side of that for their own happiness and circumstances. Careers and life aren’t the same. We can make them the same or live for our careers and some people are happiest doing so, and that is fine and a good thing. They aren’t the same inherently though so I feel everyone needs to discover what they want from life and pursue the best path to maximize that. That’s just my take of course.
Most people fall in the middle, and the less privilege or power one has, the more it can be important to figure out what you really want and try to find the way for YOU and your specific circumstances to get it. Of course no one always gets what they want, and sometimes we find ourselves happier for it. We find things we didn’t know we wanted or happy in a life that isn’t what we planned. part is in wether our happiness comes from a journey or an achievement.
It’s complicated for sure- but I agree to live life with your heart, and each person just has the puzzle of figuring out the practical side of that for their own happiness and circumstances. Careers and life aren’t the same. We can make them the same or live for our careers and some people are happiest doing so, and that is fine and a good thing. They aren’t the same inherently though so I feel everyone needs to discover what they want from life and pursue the best path to maximize that. That’s just my take of course.