How to Live Before You Die

Written by Braiden on October 14, 2010

A friend sent me a link to Steve Jobs’s commencement address he gave to the graduating class of 2005 at Stanford University. Entitled, “How to Live Before You Die,” the 15-minute speech was ripe with good ideas and suggestions not only for graduates but for the rest of us.

Divided into three parts, I found the third part, about 10 minutes in, the most compelling for Five More Minutes With purposes. In this part of his talk, Jobs said we should, “Live each day as if it were your last. Look in the mirror and live today as if it were the last day of your life.

“No one wants to die, yet death is the destination we all share and that no one has ever escaped.

“Death is the single best invention of life. . .it is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

“Your time is limited, so:

1. Don’t live someone else’s life.

2. Don’t be trapped by dogma.

3. Don’t let the noise of others drown out your inner voice.

4. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition as they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Have you listened to your heart, really listened to it lately? Are you living someone else’s life? Do you live each and every day as if it were your last?

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  • Thank you for sharing these important insights with your readers. I bet many of your readers who have suffered a loss follow these practices or keep the ideas very close in their mind.

    Comment by Chelsea Hanson — November 11, 2010

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