The Power of Purpose
Higher formal education is certainly a good and practical decision that all people are encouraged to consider. For instance, college is a place where ideas flourish and you get to develop a sense of personal identity. College institutions, then, can in many ways be places of self-discovery. Namely, through the various mandatory and elective classes, you are able to learn information and decide what areas you are most passionate about. Often, by attending college, you learn new things that interest you that you were not privy to beforehand. Thus, college is definitely a good choice for those who can attend.
However, unfortunately, sometimes even the best formal education does not necessarily teach students to pursue their dreams. Yes, you learn how to qualify for work in the real world. Still, many times, the job you end up in may not necessarily correlate with the things you most passionately believe in. In fact, while working on the job, post graduation, the trials of our “jobs” can sometimes force you to prioritize “earning a living” over “living your life.”
Therefore, true life is always a by-product of pursuing the desires of your heart. Although you may earn good salary and have a nice place to live, as a result of a job, the paradigms of community, personal fulfillment and your convictions must be pursued if you are to truly feel a sense of meaning in life and purpose for living. For example, being a manager is good. Yet if you always dreamed to be an artist, somehow, even the praise of other employees – temporarily – for your good work can be fleeting. Praise without purpose can be unfulfilling.
We must become people whose goal is to pursue the desires of our heart, our dreams and our true calling even if that means we have to sacrifice. What we want to be, for instance, is oftentimes far more important than the opportunities we have available, especially if those opportunities do not line up with the vision for our lives. For instance, sometimes, what we want to be does not exist; there may not be a job for it. Will we still pursue it? How much does our dream really mean to us? We each were created for a purpose and have a mission deep in our hearts that we are supposed to bring forth for the benefit of our generation. If we persist, never losing faith in what we believe in, in the end we will find out that the journey was most certainly worth it.