Stella B wanted to be a medical doctor but couldn’t pass the board exams no matter how hard she tried.  After her third try, she decided to change direction and found she enjoyed writing technical documents instead.  Now she enjoys a career as a technical writer for a medical research institute.

Some would argue that she did not realize her dream.  But didn’t she?  If one considers that she’s happy and fulfilled as a technical writer, a career she wouldn’t have discovered had she not pursued her original dream, we must rethink the argument.  Stella achieved her dream, just not the one she started with.  Her dream of becoming a medical doctor started the journey to the realization of her true dream or calling.

Pursuing one’s dreams is only the beginning of the journey to the realization of a life’s calling because:

1. Pursuit increases revelations:  when you start working in a business, you find out more about it than you would looking in from the outside.  For example, unless you are running a restaurant, you wont know how to cope with a shortage of ingredients.
2. Detours strengthen the heart strings:  While there’s no straight line to success, the detours strengthen your resolve to succeed.  Thus, you may change course, but you’ll achieve success one way or another like Stella B.
3. Challenges build stamina: When you work on a dream, you develop the habit of working.  This habit pays off in that if you fail to achieve your original dream, you still find success because you’ve learnt how to work.
4. Fulfillment or heart’s content:  Pursuit implies there’s a goal in mind.  As you pursue your dreams, the journey changes your path, strengthens you, and refocuses your vision till you see success differently.  In other words, you grow as you pursue your dreams.  And that growth eventually brings you your heart’s content.

Happy trails.