stay hungry. stay foolish. these are closing words of Steve Jobs’ commencement address to the 2005 graduate class at Stanford University. I have included my favourite three paragraphs from this address below:

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.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

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

– Steve Jobs

these words. powerful. they resonate with me. i carry them around with me. they hang in my office. they are written in my journal. it is my mantra. they speak to me on so many different levels. for myself, for all of us, i think it is such a strong reminder, daily, to make sure we are making the most of our time. as i write this, i completely acknowledge i am writing this from a place of new found passion. but, that is why i am writing it. life is about timing. sometimes we have great timing and sometimes, we do not. sometimes we feel the world is kicking us when we we are down, and sometimes, we feel on top of the world- like the world wants us to win. what i have learned is that when we are listening to our inner voices, it really doesn’t matter. being true to ourselves is first and foremost. everything else will fall into place. like my dad said to me once, ‘do you know why it is the right decision? because you made it, that is why’. let that be your guiding principle, it is mine.

lise

xo.