One of the sad things that I've learned as I got older is that sometimes you have to sacrifice your goals and dreams for someone else's well-being. It won't happen to everybody, but it can happen to anybody. It could be something like taking care of a family member's children because the family member in question got killed in an accident. You could just have those kids be put up for adoption, but you would look like an asshole for doing it.

Nothing like this has happened to me, but it is something that I think about constantly. I always think of Ken Sugimori, the original Pokemon artist. He had to give up his lifelong dream of being a manga artist just so his friends can achieve their short-term goal of releasing the first generation Pokemon games on time, and that's an even less extreme example.

Sacrificing hopes and dreams is unfortunately a fact of some lives, but if it happens, it should be for someone close to you and the situation should be dire. Don't do it because your mom told you that you don't care about anyone else but yourself.