Life and death

Day 2 of 31 days of pursuing your passion

I was reading various news articles this morning about the death of Steve Jobs. He was a visionary, inventor and innovator of our time and I feel saddened to hear of his passing. I read the commencement address that he gave at Stanford in 2005 and it resonated with me. Here are a few excerpts from the address (I've included the link at the end).

"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

"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."

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Jobs' message resonates with my pursuit of passion theme for the month. Keeping in mind his words and thoughts is critical to our own personal evolution and growth. We have to keep our eye on the end goal--to live a full, satisfied life where each of us lives to our full potential.