I sent out the message today that I had resigned from Thermo and let people in on the secret I’d been keeping for the past several years.  The support has been phenomenal.  With so many new friends and colleagues being introduced to the blog for the first time I thought it an appropriate to dig into the archives and repost a section from my very first post in 2006.  The following except if from a commencement speech delivered by Steve Jobs of Apple.  I’ve heard this message in other formats and in many ways internalized this message and have used it to stay on track.

When I was seventeen, I read a quote that went something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right”. It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

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.

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.

–Steve Jobs

I wonder if someone has to come to terms with their own mortality before they can begin to listen to the small voices within them. Those voices are the ones that can tell us where our happiness lay. For me, that has always been to travel and explore new places. For others maybe it''s to have a big family, work for a non-profit, climb Everest, or have a garden. That''s individual; the courage to pursue the dreams is common, or at least the search for the courage to follow your dreams. - Lee

Lee Winters
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