Steve Jobs, from a commencement speech at Stanford in 2005
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart…
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
2 comments:
Since Steve Jobs died there has been a lot of discussion in the media about exactly what kind of person he was. I don’t know much about him, but the words of this speech ring true to me. Each of us has the opportunity to use the fact of our upcoming death as a discernment tool to help us discover what really matters to us. There is an alive place within us that knows who we are and can guide us.
Help me to live my own life, to hear and follow the voice that is true, wherever it may speak from.
Parker J. Palmer's words are reflected in Steve Jobs'. Go back to Lectio Divina for Dec. 14, 2008 and see this: "Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am."
Jobs listened to his own life, the chatter and the mind clutter having been cleared away by his illness, which he knew would claim him early. If only everyone could begin to listen openly and honestly without the prospect of an early death forcing the issue!
God, give me the courage to listen to my inner voice, to embrace my own soul. After all, what is that inner voice but you?
Post a Comment