We often tend to work on the goals that the people around us would like us to complete. This will only lead us to the life that they envision for you. What is benefit that you obtain from reaching their goals?
While having people that want the best for you is great, you have to find the path you want to create for yourself. Imagine starting higher education in a certain area that your parents would love. If you appreciate the choice of your parents you will start motivated. However you will likely burn through your motivation quickly if you don’t happen to like the education yourself. Following the guidance of others could happen to be exactly the same route as you would take on your own. But if you aren’t sure you would have chosen the same, you will start to struggle to later on.
If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress. – Barack Obama
The problem with following someone’s advice is that you never know how long you will continue. Taking a certain route will probably bring advantages in the long run. However if you haven’t considered your options yourself your motivation will be non-existant at some point. You will wonder why you took the route you are following and why you shouldn’t have chosen something else. If you are carefully selecting your path in advance you will already anticipate this future problem and potentially avoid it completely.
Don’t follow your friends or family blindly. Rather focus on the things that are important for you, even if this is completely the opposite from the opinion of the people around you. While you may be studying higher education don’t neglect the goals you would like to aim for. Build on the skills you think you need even if you don’t know the exact reason for it yet. For example you might want to start writing stories or blogs without seeing a single benefit from it. But if you are motivated for doing it you will benefit from it in the long run.
Expectations from others will only bring you so far. If you set the goals yourself the end goal can be still so far off, but you will be more likely to achieve them.