Why Being Yourself Is the Key to Fulfilling Life?

In order to fulfill your life, you must follow your dream and walk on your own unique destiny relentlessly; otherwise, your life will be disappointed, unsatisfied, and unfulfilled. You cannot fulfill your life by doing what you detest just to get a monthly salary to go on living. And above all, you cannot fulfill your life by pretending to be everyone else so that you can fit in society. This is because you were born to be different with your own unique ability and character. You need to shine your unique ability to the world that is your sole responsibility for your life and yourself.

You must have the courage to be different, for being true to yourself is the essential tool to turn your dream into a reality and fulfill your life. Most people nowadays lack the courage to bring their true colors to light, and so they follow the herd in marching towards an unfulfilled life. The saddest part is that if they see you have the courage to be true to yourself and walk your unique destiny with undying enthusiasm, they will try to dissuade you from living your dream because they are leading colorless lives with dead-end jobs. However, paradoxically, they don’t have the courage to be different, they can’t defend their own unique opinions by themselves, they always need other’s concordance to act, and they are as weak as a sad autumn leaf when they are alone, as soon as they herd an alliance, they will be the strongest force under the sun.

People are afraid of leaping into the unknown to follow their own unique destiny because they do not want to be different from others. People always tend to choose the easy way, but not the hard one. Chasing real knowledge and following one’s own destiny often require a taste of solitude and loneliness. This is why people often ignore their inner callings. They are afraid of being solitary – that is why the herd instinct spreads all over the world like a blanket. Because of the herd instinct, the most important aspect of life is missing in present-day societies: Individualism. If one wants to realize his vocation and walk on his private destiny relentlessly, he must cultivate his individuality.

Hermann Hesse was the man who preached the importance of individualism in all his life. He clearly explained about the difference between genuine communion and false communion:

He spoke about the spirit of Europe and the signs of the times. Everywhere, he said, we could observe the reign of the herd instinct, nowhere freedom and love. All this false communion – from the fraternities to the choral societies and the nations themselves – was an inevitable development, was a community born of fear and dread, out of embarrassment, but inwardly rotten, outworn, close to collapsing.

“Genuine communion,” said Demian, “is a beautiful thing. But what we see flourishing everywhere is nothing of the kind. The real spirit will come from the knowledge that separate individuals have of one another and for a time, it will transform the world. The community spirit at present is only a manifestation of the herd instinct. Men fly into each other’s arms because they are afraid of each other – the owners are for themselves, the workers for themselves, the scholars for themselves! And why are they afraid? You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves. A whole society composed of men afraid of the unknown within them! They all sense that the rules they live by are no longer valid, that they live according to archaic laws – neither their religion nor their morality is in any way suited to the needs of the present. For a hundred years or more, Europe has done nothing but study and build factories! They know exactly how many ounces of powder it takes to kill a man, but they don’t know how to pray to God, they don’t even know how to be happy for a single contented hour. Just take a look at a student dive! Or a resort where the rich congregate. It’s hopeless. Dear Sinclair, nothing good can come of all of this. These people who huddle together in fear are filled with dread and malice, no one trust the other. They hanker after ideals that are ideals no longer but they will hound the man to death who sets up a new one. I can feel the approaching conflict. It’s coming, believe me, and soon. Of course it will not ‘improve’ the world. Whether the workers kill the manufacturers or whether Germany makes war on Russia will merely mean a change of ownership. But it won’t have been entirely in vain. It will reveal the bankruptcy of present-day ideals, there will be a sweeping away of  Stone Age gods. The world, as it is now, wants to die, wants to perish – and it will.”

“And what will happen to us during this conflict?”

“To us? Oh, perhaps we’ll perish in it. Our kind can be shot, too. Only we aren’t done away with as easily as all that. Around what remains of us, around those of us who survive, the will of the future will gather. The will of humanity, which our Europe has shouted down for a time with its frenzy of technology, will come to the fore again. And then it will become clear that the will of humanity is nowhere – and never was – identical with the will of present-day societies, states and peoples, clubs and churches. No, what Nature wants of man stands indelibly written in the individual, in you, in me. It stood written in Jesus, it stood written in Nietzsche. These tendencies – which are the only important ones and which, of course, can assume different forms every day – will have room to breathe once the present societies have collapsed.”

As a matter of fact, I depicted the importance of chasing after your dream to fulfill your life in Dance to Dreams: Making the Right Choice. Dance to Dreams is a beautiful read for anybody who is struggling to chase a dream or for anyone afraid to step out of the crowd and dare to live fearlessly. It is a deeply moving book that offers readers of all backgrounds a refreshing glimpse of the life-changing possibilities that are within our reach. 

At any rate, stop thinking about what other people think of you because this is your life, not theirs. You have a responsibility to fulfill your life, so start being true to yourself all the time and chase after your dream with a firm determination. And then, you will see that you have an infinite possibility in your life.