I honestly think it's destructive. It just seems to tell people that they could never want anything wrong, and if you don't know what to do, do what you feel like! Feeling, down, need to be happy? Need to tell somebody you love them? Just do it! Have a dream for you life that you want to make come true today? Ger right on it!

I like taking phrases to an extreme and testing them. Of course if you did this to every phrase, than it would fail under the right circumstance. Every bit of advice is like that. The question is how much society needs to hear this phrase today.

Honestly, I don't think that people need to hear it that much. Following your heart can not only be a good way to NOT get what you want. . . but it can become destructive when you do. More for relationships that plans of business. Just jumping out there and doing things without learning or planning can be a bad idea too.

Honestly, I think that our generation needs to remember that our hearts must be tempered with our minds before anything else. Once you master the most important aspect, or rather make that aspect a strong master over all else THEN you can operate on your emotions.

And a beautiful thing life can be. What are your thoughts?

Sword legion : I mean I'm not sure in a way it works, and in some ways it doesn't you just need to know the right time of when to do it and when not to do it. For me I just tell a friend just do what is right. Instead of saying follow your heart since....it could lead you into trouble as it has done for many people. As you claimed doing so or maybe to the scale of often doing that can be very destructive since it won't always help you. In all honesty its better to think in it really well before making a decision you would regret for a very long time. This is my opinion based on it so it would be pretty much different for everyone else, and their thoughts to do with it.  '-'

Sword legion : Good morning, my lord. In truth, I've always followed my heart astoundingly. Whenever I insult someone almost unintentionally, my mind tells me to back off, but my heart tells me to apologize. My low self-esteem makes it so I end up apologizing over everything minor. However, those apologies make me feel a lot better. My point is, only follow your heart if your moral convictions are positive and you are doing the right thing in the end. I'll always think twice about what I say, and apologize soon after. I'm only doing what my heart tells me.

Well, of course it needs some preparation. You cannot always do what you feel like, but most of the time following your heart is almost instinctive. What your heart says is the first choice you must consider before doing anything, and if your considerations show that you should do it, then go ahead.

Obviously, we cannot see beyond our own eyes, so probably we miss certain factors when considering how appropriate it is to follow our heart, sometimes even key factors. But you know, following your heart also needs some kind of bravery and determination, maybe even confidence in oneself, and not everyone presents those traits.

In my opinion, you must make a list of possible choices within your mind, carefully paying attention to how appropriate they are, and then let your heart decide which one is the best. Our heart is the engine of our body, so it should be the one who drives us to our final decision. That's how I go, and so far I have nothing to regret. After all, I'm being myself, and there's nothing I'd regret more than pretending to be something I'm not.

One time I followed my heart.

A few months later my heart was broken into a million pieces.

Therefore I hate the phrase "follow your heart".

Usually in life there's a lot of things that needs to be taken accounted for before you do something, and the phrase is basically saying "all that stuff doesn't matter just do it, I don't care whether it'll end awfully". I like to go mind first instead of heart first, and I think that works better in the long run.

Sword legion : I like what you're doing here. This is going to be fun and you'll probably see me align myself against you for the sake of conversation.

I'm going to go the other direction and say, "The phrase follow your heart is meant to be interpreted more abstractly than what you're taking it for."

"Follow your heart" means you need to find ways to succeed with the things you want. Other people tell you to do stuff and you might get it done, maybe not, but you don't care. You find happiness only when you succeed with the things you truly want. You truly want to have a job designing video games? Go after it because your motivation will help you when things get tough. You have a desire to 100% a game and you want to spend the time doing it to succeed? Keep after it and follow your heart.

People may want things that are destructive or intentionally hurtful to others but from that person's perspective, it's the right call. You and I can't ever tell anyone they're desiring something wrong. Of course, if they want to kill or beat people up or steal.... yeah, we get it. Let's just have the conversation with the belief that people are generally good.

Let's take an example: There's a guy at my work who doesn't like his job in corporate wellness and he wants to be an engineer.

I told, literally yesterday, to follow his heart. It doesn't mean he starts applying for engineering jobs. It means he goes to the local university, he learns the process of how to become an engineer, he plans the financial aspects to see how much he can afford, and he plots a strategy to get a degree and a job.

It's not jumping in when you follow your heart. It's a well-developed strategy for being happy and succeeding at life. Following your heart doesn't mean you're rushing into things.

Following your heart usually means happiness.

I think the phrase is about right because even though it can hurt the person in one way, it can help them in another.

I'll tag onto what ZT said, even though it can break someones heart, they can learn from it, they learn not to do the same thing, the consequences, how to be stronger in some ways, and even though following your heart may not lead to what you wanted, it can definitely help you figure out what you don't want, and get it out of the way.