16 May New research confirms that you’re really going to regret not chasing those crazy dreams
If happiness is achievement.
And if happiness is living YOUR life.
And if happiness is pursuing your passions then…
via Inc.com by Jessica Stillman
In life, what our souls tell us to do is often in conflict with what we feel we “should” do. You should find a stable, well-paying job, your parents and teachers tell you, for instance. Meanwhile, your heart tells you that you have the soul of a musician or an entrepreneur. You should save money for a down payment on a house, but meanwhile you daydreamendlessly about squandering your measly savings on extended travel.
When these inevitable crossroads come and you need to choose between the road that leads toward the sensible and expected path and the one that leads toward some crazy dream, which path should you choose?
This might sound like an entirely personal decision (and ultimately it is), but recent science can actually offer some guidance. If you’re like the majority of people, new research shows, you’re going to regret not following your dreams a whole lot more than you’re going to regret not doing what you “should.”
It’s the “couldas,” not the “shouldas,” that will haunt you.
There are already tons of anecdotal evidence about what people regret in life, from the testimony of those who care for the dying to multiple social media threads dedicated to sharing regrets and helping others avoid similar ones. But scientists out of Cornell and the New School for Social Research wanted to do a more rigorous exploration of what people really end up regretting.
To accomplish this, they recruited hundreds of participants to share their regrets. They then divided these answers into two categories: those involving the “ideal self,” i.e., who you dreamed you’d be or who you felt an inner drive to become, and those involving the “ought self,” i.e., those that dealt with not meeting the expectations or ideals of others. Which type of regret was more common?
…keep reading the full & original article HERE