🕛 Your time is limited, don’t be trapped by dogma
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma.
I watched a documentary about Steve Jobs yesterday, and I was struck by how his quotes and philosophy take on a different meaning now that I have a different mindset and outlook on how I live my life.
Jobs was a Buddhist and believed in Zen, so there isn’t mention of higher powers or supernatural forces. There isn’t any talk of doing things for the glory of God, or “God has given me these abilities.”
His ideas are far more self-centric with a belief that people need to do the best for themselves, to bring joy and fulfillment in their own lives, not for the benefit of some higher power.
Hmm, where have we heard that before?
For example, take this from one of his interviews. It’s a powerful statement about being true to yourself.
*When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
And the minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that’s very important and however, you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.*
This absolutely feels like a snub of religion, the Bible and God. In order to be happy and achieve results in your life, you need to kick those archaic ideas to the curb. You can believe in that crap, but it’s going to hold you back in life.
These are made even more insightful because Jobs knew he was dying. Not in that same sense of we all know we’re dying from the moment we’re born, but a real tangible number of days left. He got sick, had the liver transplant, but knew he was on borrowed time.
However, you don’t see ideas of the “divine” enter the picture. He wasn’t concerned about giving all his money away to charity, getting things named after him, or buying his way into heaven in some sort of Faustian deal. He chose to live a deliberate life, one for himself, one he could be proud of. He wanted to make an impact on the world around him and live life by his own rules.
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.
This really strikes a chord. People who are obviously no smarter than me, keep making rules and telling me how to live my life. They abuse and oppress people, yet state, This is how you need to live. This is what makes you a good person. This is what success means.
And 95% of their opinions and beliefs come from a made up set up rules that don’t fit my life, aka the Bible.
Life isn’t about being subservient or a slave to someone else. Life isn’t about fulfilling someone else desires like growing up to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer. Life isn’t about pleasing someone else lest ye be punished.
It’s about living a deliberate and honest life for yourself. It’s about embracing life, not just going through the motions and trying not to bump into the walls.
Even though Jobs could see his end, there was no mention of Heaven or the Afterlife. He didn’t bring up judgement by God, working to please God, or looking down from Heaven to watch over his awesome legacy. Jobs was very much, this is my one life, this is my one chance, I need to make the most of it.
*‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ *
That is the kind of statement that stops you in your tracks.
It’s all about living this specific day, being in this moment, living a life that makes you happy with a positive impact on the world. Or at least a positive impact on the people around you. Don’t live life by being an asshole.
When you read a comment like that, you have to take stock. Am I working at the best company? Am I in the best relationship? Are these the best people to spend my time with? Am I doing the best things for me?
Make no mistake, Jobs was not a Satanist, he was a Buddhist, but clearly his philosophy put him at the center of his own universe. He lived a life for himself, to pursue his dreams, to ignore the people that said, “This is how you need to live, these are the rules you need to follow.”
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me.
It’s hard to argue with Jobs’ thought process, but they are made even more powerful because he could see his own end. Not an end that was coming in a few decades, or even a few years, but counted in months. Like a kid counting the days to Halloween and gorging on candy, he was crossing off the days. It wasn’t some far off unknown, his final carriage ride was coming around the corner.
I admire his stoic nature toward death. I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but he didn’t seem scared of it. Knowing that death is coming makes your choices more deliberate, more meaningful. There is no time for stupid decisions. There is no time for useless people.
You can make more money, you can buy more things, but:
The most precious resource we all have is time.
We must live deliberately, for ourselves, not in the shadow of some imaginary figure cooked up in a 2000 year old fairy tale. If we aren’t living for ourselves, then we aren’t really living.