Can you be whoever you want to be?

[thespiritual1]

I think we can be whoever we dont want to be. Lets say I want to be a doctor. I study and work hard to become a doctor. But in the process of becoming a doctor I become something else, a bookworn. All I do is read books and memorize them so where is the doctor in that?
Lets say I want to be rich. I work hard to become rich, but in the process of obtaining riches, I have to work so much that I become a poor labourer.
These examples that I give, usually vent my dissapointment in life. I try to be optimistic but things seem to be so tangled. No matter what path I consider taking, each one has a fatal flaw in it. I am talking about making my career. Has anyone ever successfully become what they aim for?

You can't be whoever you want.
You can only realize who you are.
The more you chase who you aren't, the more resistance you will face.

You can do whatever you want in life once you realize who you are though. with little resistance. more so you will fall into it.

[FallingLeaves]

I'm going to throw this out there...

when considering what I wished to be, I ended up putting a lot more weight on what I thought others wanted me to be than on any real understanding of who I was and what I might be.

[Shivani Devi]

You can be whoever you want to be, but Karma may have other ideas about that.

All you can ever be, is the best version of yourself at any given time.

[Miss Hepburn]

I believe if you think you can you can.
If you think you can't you can't...and never will.

[inavalan]

In life, you get, on average, what you deserve on average.

Don't get disappointed when you perceive that you get less than you deserve, because the future will compensate for it. When you get more than you deserve don't get cocky either, because it will average out.

Always do your best, no matter what! If you get discouraged, and do less, then you deserve less, and you'll get even less. It will spiral down.

It's a bit selective and depends on what sort of person/mentality you have on the mundane. You can be many things you want as long as society/your culture at large allows you to practise your vocation; how single-mindedly you can pursue the goal, how much compromise you're prepared to make; how good you are at strategising (which is where meditation, contemplation, visualisation can help). And finally, your resources:

Becoming a doctor is expensive. Becoming a world famous pianist is expensive. (Both on time and money.) Becoming rich is looking at what personal resource you can put into investment, how much you can borrow to start things off and finding someone damned good to guide you initially.

I was consoled that as a "mature" student I could take up an uni or college course if determined - no entrance exams as long as I could convince the head of department that I was worth taking on. Things may be different where you are but that's the UK.

I was determined to go free-lance but that rested on having some contacts, a "get it done" mentality, strong motivation and wiling to be adaptable if I had got it wrong. I affirmed I was going to win! Well, I can't pretend it's been an easy ride but I reckon I'm where I want to be. I didn't want to be rich and famous! just earn enough to put half my earnings away for rainy days/old age.

So...see yourself in your future, decide if it's feasible, if it is, work out how you can do it.