Live Before You Die: Positive Thursday Inspiration from Steve Jobs

Last updated on April 2nd, 2012 at 01:22 pm

Yesterday, we lost a tech and creative industry giant and culturally relevant figure – the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. He was a visionary, a leader, an inspiration, a man who truly shaped not only the creative and tech space, but the world.

As someone who is always on the lookout for inspiration, I’m drawn to Steve’s story. He is someone who has shaped my day-to-day life through technology – there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t use my iPhone, iPod or Macbook. It’s hard to argue with the fact that he shaped modern day technology – he is literally legend.

President Obama released a statement yesterday saying: “Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”

But what does that look like? How do we go about our daily lives living to the point of death?

Well, I am no expert, but I am someone who has lived twenty-two and a half short years and learned how quickly things change. Even further, I’ve learned how drastically people come and go and how abruptly our wildest dreams can become a reality.

If today was literally the absolute last day of your life, what would you do? What would you say? How would that affect your interactions with other people and the world we live in?

“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.” -Steve Jobs

How to live to the point of death? Trusting yourself. Going with your gut. Following your dreams. Never ever, ever, ever settle. Remembering that our past does not define us, but instead helps us learn, grow and evolve into the brilliant, wonderful people were were created to be.

The image above quote Jobs saying: “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.” The quote continues (in Jobs’ speech in the video below) saying “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.”

If you’ve ever followed me on Twitter, you know my bio reads: “Aspire to conquer the world.” What does this mean? Well, to some, maybe this means “world peace” or moving to Africa and building a school or “taking over the nation by doing X, Y and Z.”

Honestly, no.

Aspiring to conquer the world to me means affecting other individuals lives in a real, raw and positive way. Aspiring to conquer the world means living life to the fullest before death. And that’s why the Steve Jobs quote below is my favorite. It truly hits home to me and reminds me that yes, I am crazy and yes, I can do it and yes, I will do it.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.

May today be the day you pursue your dreams wholeheartedly and truly only do what you LOVE to do. May today be the day you challenge yourself, you push yourself, you begin to conquer the world. This one’s for you Steve!

Much love,

Andi