Mind over Matter

The biggest fights we have are ones between our mind and our heart. The one between what we should do and the one that we want to do. On the one hand, there is the practical, sensible, the one that makes most sense, and the one that in the long run may prove to be more successful. And on the other hand, there is the one you want, the one that is easy, the one with love and friendship and the things that matter more.

Neither is wrong. One takes all the decisiveness you have, all the will power in the world and all the diligence. The other takes guts, the guts to follow what makes you happy, the courage to go against practicality and all the people who think they know the best for you.

The first is the road more travelled, you know more or less exactly how your next few years will play out, you know that it is at the end of the day the smarter thing to do. it will make a lot of people around you happy, it will make them happy because you did what they suggested, it will make other people happy because it seems logical, well planned, you will be exemplary and also successful in most ways.

The second however will make you happy, the pharell-clap-along-if-you-are-happy kind of happy. It’s risky, it may not work out in your favor as you had hoped but it will be okay because you did what you wanted. People around you will tell you how you made a mistake by not listening to them and by being selfish. Being selfish is not looked upon as a positive attribute in our culture.


What do you do then? What side do you pick, do you voluntarily take something that will instantly gratify you but may ultimately put you behind a few steps on the road to success or do you bite your lip, drink the poison go with something that is ideal and absolutely practical? Do you give into the ambition you have harbored and worked so hard for all these years, or do you succumb for once to the romantic in you. In this dog-eat-dog world, isn't it better to be smart because sentiment is overvalued? Is it, at the end of the day, braver to close your eyes and take that leap of faith or is it in fact much harder to tell your heart to shut it for just five more minutes and do what your brain is telling you, because there are no excuses in life. 

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