Does My BUT Look Big In These Jeans?
October 9th, 2011
Not sure if you heard, but Apple (and NeXT and Pixar and…) founder Steve Jobs passed away last week. Of course you’ve heard. News of Jobs’ passing wasn’t just the top of the news cycle; for several days, it WAS the news cycle. And, if you’re like me, your Facebook page blew up with excerpts from Mr. Jobs’ 2005 Stanford University commencement speech. Most notably was this gem:
“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.”
Many of my friends posted this bit (which even I shared) and several others posted the link to the entire speech. And, when doing so, most of these friends (and, okay, yes, me, too) wrote some kind of flowery bit about Steve Jobs’ contributions to humanity and how inspirational his words were.
I can’t argue with any of that, but as I was reading these posts, I was overwhelmed by a question: Really? Are we really all that inspired by the 2005 commencement speech? Are we really moved by his words? It dawned on me that if we were really touched by these thoughts…well, wouldn’t we have done something to change our lives? Wouldn’t we be writing about HOW these words sparked some kind of action? HOW these words led us to trust our own hearts and intuition just as he implored us to do? Instead, we’re falling into old patterns and finding a fleeting inspiration.
I’ve long said that perspective is easy to find and difficult to keep. (It’s true, I’ve long said it – look it up.) But, what I’m discovering now is that inspiration is perspective’s soul mate, or perhaps they are Siamese Twins…connected at the heart. Because after the passing of Steve Jobs, I’m starting to think that inspiration is just as fleeting as perspective.
It’s so easy to feel inspired, to get inspired. Inspiration, like perspective, comes in many forms and from equally diverse sources. It comes fast. And it goes away just as fast? Why? Because we make excuses. We get inspired to write. And we figure out 100 reasons why we can’t make it as a writer. We get inspired to start-up a new company. We get inspired to find love. We get inspired to go on a great adventure. And, all too often, we rarely follow up on the inspiration. Easy to find. Difficult to keep.
My business partner spent the weekend in Hawaii experiencing the Ironman Triathlon. I’ve twice had the privilege of this experience and it’s a nearly indescribable experience. Jon tried, when he wrote to me via email:
“I think I found some interesting answers last night. In a million years I wouldn’t have guessed how amazing the race was from 9pm-midnight. I’ve never seen anything like that… I’m not even sure I can call that a sporting event. I’m not sure what it was… But it was one of the most amazing, inspirational, wonderful things I’ve ever seen. In a way life changing…. Not sure how, but it was unreal. Thanks for pushing me to go.”
He was inspired by one of the most amazing scenes on the planet. Celebration. Achievement. Agony. Love. Community. The outpouring of hope and togetherness felt at the Ironman finish line cannot fully be explained. Jon gets that now. And he’s inspired. In some way, his life is changed forever. Just like he said.
I know it reads like I’ve gone way off the rails here (what does any of this have to do with Steve Jobs, after all?), but the point is simple: When we get inspired, we all (collectively) need to do a better job acting on it. We have to stop making excuses and letting our big “but” get in the way of our opportunities to be great. It’s great to post Steve’s speech on a Facebook wall, but the fact is, such an action is meaningless if we don’t actually do something. Finding inspiration is a euphoric feeling. There’s a real high that comes with reading the right words, listening to the right music, seeing the right movie or watching the right scene play out in a park.
If you want to feel a much bigger rush, though…Act on it. Screw the fear of failure or whatever’s holding you back. Steve’s speech was really just a long way of saying what Nike commanding many years before Steve got up on that stage at Stanford: Just Do It.
We’re all inspired now. What are we going to do about it?
