Steve Jobs' Wisdom on "Death as a Motivator"

Its been a while since I've had a deep and honest one. Here we go...



I took the time to watch the above video today and I took some extreme gold gems from it. Jotted them down in my personal sketchbook/notebook. And I thought I would share with you some. By all means watch the video but I enjoyed these points:

--Work will take up a great portion of your life. Do what you feel is GREAT work. Don't settle.

--Look in the mirror each day and ask yourself: "If I were gonna die at the end of today, would I go and do the things that I am going to do today?" If the answer is consistantly no, then you know there is something you need to change.

--Remembering that you are going to die is the best way to avoid the trap thinking you have something to lose. We are already naked. There's no reason not to follow your heart.

--Death is the best part of life. It clears out the old and makes way for the new. And right you, THAT NEW IS YOU. Your time is limited so don't waste it by 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 other people's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.

--Stay hungry, Stay foolish.

Such powerful words and they hit me hard tonight. See I've been kind of quiet with this publically but I have told a few friends and loved ones about it. For the last year or so I have had an extreme fear of the reality of death. That indeed 100% certain that I will die. I sometimes wake myself up at night fearful that I will not wake up if I fall back asleep. It keeps me awake at night. And I feel like I sort of deserve it, because of my poor health that I have cultivated and that I didn't do the best with the time I have had so far. Not that I've lived a hell life. Far from it. But I just feel like I should apply myself more. I am not hungry enough. I am not foolish enough. I talk myself out of dreams. I talk myself out of working hard. I talk myself out of getting healthy.

Why would I do those things? It seems to sign a certain early death warrant. In this, I have cultivated my physical, mental, spiritual and historical death. My biggest fear of death is that I will die and leave my loved ones behind without a clear picture of how to continue in my absence. Not that the world would fall apart with me gone, but it certainly would be hard for a few people. For me, I would be sad because I wouldn't get to see how it all ends. Does humanity get it all together and we become one and learn and explore together in peace? What of art, music and writing? The three things I love the most more than anything else? The joy of creating is my soul. Be it a painting, a comic book, a sketch, a poem, a story, a human life or even a memory. Create, create, create. That is what I am. A creator. How can one that creates cease to create? Seems impossible. But it is. And that is what I am having a hard time with. Mid-life crisis? I don't honestly know.

I've always know that my path is different than what others will desire. I've always known I look at things in this world much differently than the great many of others. but yet I cannot grasp this simple of truths. Death should be my great motivator. My motivation to keep at it and keep creating every second. To stop paying attention to the things that do not truly matter. To worry about news or people who's lives do not effect me in the slightest. Death should motivate me to get healthy once and for all to help prolong my life and help me teach others longer and keep me creating longer. Death should motivate me to teach my kids to value their lives as much as they can cause when its gone, it is gone. I have somehow lost that over the years. And I lost my hunger. I have only been foolish.

I look to my right just now and I see my three year old son. And I know one day that he will die. But I envy his journey he has yet to take. But I have to keep reminding myself, look dude, you're only 33. You're still standing. You have a chance to change it all. Right now. To find your hunger again.

I was hungry in college. I lost my mother to death. I wanted to do right by her. To keep her memory with me and travel on. To do the things she could not do but sacrificed her chance to do because she had to raise us kids. I was hungry. I wrote. I painted. I fought through the arrows of my life. I paved my own path. I emerged triumphant and created the best parts of me. Works that will stand beyond me. I'm quite proud of that. But somehow in the last few months that despite my many successes this year, I feel like I lost it. I lost my hunger. I think its because of my loss of self pride. I've lost myself somehow. But I want myself back. I want to get hungry again. I want to keep following my heart and my intuition. Because I do know what I have always wanted for me and my life. And I have been treading water lately.

I want to get hungry again. I want to get even more foolish. But the good kind on both counts. I need to get that edge back. That "Eye of the Tiger." For now, I remain quite inspired by Steve Jobs' words above. May you all find your motivations as well. Stay hungry and get foolish people!

T