The late Steve Jobs inspired many people during his life. In addition to showing the world that a college dropout wasn’t necessarily doomed to failure, Jobs freely shared his secrets to success with the world.
Even though I’m currently a PC and Android kind of girl, I have a great respect for Jobs, not only for his extraordinary success, but also for his apparent understanding of the world around him and his ability to inspire others.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
What points stood out most for you in Jobs’ speech? Please share your thoughts in the comments section, below.
Over the years, I’ve come to understand that all it takes to begin to effect positive change in your life is the ability to believe that you can–that you really can change your life by just changing your mind.
That’s why today, I’m sharing a few of my favorite quotes. I hope they might inspire you to create (or continue to create) the life that you truly desire.
“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ~Alan Alda
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” ~Oprah Winfrey
“No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.” ~Barbara de Angelis
“If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger – we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to re-commit, to be whole-hearted once again.” ~Sharon Salzberg
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ~Barack Obama
“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” ~Wayne Dyer
“There are no prescriptive solutions, no grand designs for grand problems. Life’s solutions lie in the minute particulars involving more and more individual people daring to create their own life and art, daring to listen to the voice within their deepest, original nature, and deeper still, the voice within the earth.” ~Stephen Nachmanovitch
Let’s discuss! Do you believe that you have the power to change your life? Please share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section, below.
It’s February 29, people! This day only comes (approximately) once every four years, so let me be the first to wish you a very happy Leap Day.
So what’s the big deal about Leap Day? For many people, it’s just another day. But it makes me smile to think of all the possibilities such a day could entail.
For example, in 1228, a Scottish law was passed that allowed women to propose to men on February 29. The custom has since been observed in a number of European cultures.
While clearly women today can propose to whomever they like without fear of legal action (thank goodness), the law opened a door for women of the time that gave them an opportunity they would have otherwise been denied.
Perhaps it could be seen as an early taste of equality.
A strange amazing day that comes only once every four years. For the rest of the time it does not ‘exist.’
In mundane terms, it marks a ‘leap’ in time, when the calendar is adjusted to make up for extra seconds accumulated over the preceding three years due to the rotation of the earth. A day of temporal tune up!
But this day holds another secret—it contains one of those truly rare moments of delightful transience and light uncertainty that only exist on the razor edge of things, along a buzzing plane of quantum probability…
A day of unlocked potential.
Will you or won’t you? Should you or shouldn’t you?
Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself. Take a chance and shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability!”
I don’t know about you, but Nazarian’s thoughts fill me with excitement and motivation to explore all the unlocked potential I can–to take a leap (pun intended) of faith and try something new, to shape a different pattern in MY personal cloud of probability.
Love it. I think I’m going to have to order that calendar. In the meantime, I’ll be doing something new and exciting–making it count. How about you?
How does Nazarian’s quote make you feel? And what will you do today to shape a different pattern in your personal cloud of probability? Please share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section, below.
A man was reading the newspaper during breakfast and said to his wife, “Look at this. Another beautiful actress is going to marry a baseball player who’s a total dope!
I’ll never understand why the biggest jerks get the hottest wives.”
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.
Got a funny (clean) joke, story or pic to share? Add it to the comments section below, or email me at [email protected] to have it published in the Your Daily Smile column!
“China has a population of a billion people. One billion. That means even if you’re a one in a million kind of guy, there are still a thousand others exactly like you.” ~A. Whitney Brown
“My grandfather always said, ‘Don’t watch your money; watch your health.’ So one day while I was watching my health, someone stole my money. It was my grandfather.” ~Jackie Mason
Q. What’s the difference between one yard and two yards?
A. A fence.
Got a funny (clean) joke, story or pic to share? Add it to the comments section below, or email me at [email protected] to have it published in the Your Daily Smile column!
“I bought a box of animal crackers and it said on it ‘Do not eat if seal is broken.’ So I opened up the box, and sure enough…” ~Brian Kiley
“Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” ~George Burns
“If I ever have twins, I’d use one for parts.” ~Steven Wright
Got a funny (clean) joke, story or pic to share? Add it to the comments section below, or email me at [email protected] to have it published in the Your Daily Smile column!
