vagaries of my mind

Stumbled upon Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford speech of 2005 which I’ve read a couple of times in past. One phrase in particular caught my attention this time which I’d like to post here:

“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.”

Find the full text of the speech here:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

We must remember that most of the customs, traditions (& religion) and way of life that we lead are not more than 500-600 years old. They may not be the ideal ways to lead life – the institutions created (religion, education, jobs, marriage and even the way of life) may not be the perfect ones. It makes a lot of sense to use your own pragmatic mind, heart and intuitions to evaluate the existing systems and create your institutions, your way of life (which is aligned with your personality and goals in life). Learn, observe, read and practice to create your beliefs, your way of life – the first 20-25 years of most of us are guided by someone else’s will (parents, teachers, peer pressures etc). While that would have given a direction to your life and would have definitely taught you a lot of good things, all of it might not be suitable for you.

It is really compelling to explore and find out what is suitable for you, what are your takeaways from past and what are the things that you are passionate about now!