20.03.2023

SUCCESS TECHNIQUES: STEVE JOBS' THEORY OF HAPPINESS

Six years before he passed away, Steve Jobs gave a speech that continues to resonate to this day.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life," was the late Apple co-founder's message to Stanford University graduates in 2005, shortly after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and learned that his between three and six months left to live.

Faced with his own mortality, he has realized the importance of living the best life one can possibly have. He was able to convey this message to the graduates and the rest of the world who listened.

Jobs' message made many people think about the things that really matter in their own lives. To this day, when we listen to that speech, we feel the need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves questions inspired by Jobs. We will all be happier if we occasionally seek answers to these three questions:

Am I living the life I want? Am I doing what I want?

After hearing the diagnosis, Jobs began to live each day as if it would be his last. The idea of the limited time each of us has on this earth is not meant to make us downcast. On the contrary, it empowers us to use this precious time in the most meaningful way possible.

Jobs called the moment he came face to face with death "the most important tool I've ever come across to help me make the big choices in life." Almost everything, he said, our fears, our failures and our pride, "disappear in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I'm about to do today?

It's a question Jobs said he asked himself every day as he literally stood in front of his mirror after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.

“When the answer is no too many days in a row, I know I have to change something.” If I asked myself the same question every day at this point in my life and career, the answer would be a resounding yes!, the late co-founder shared of Apple.

We urge you to do the same. Be prepared to ask yourself the same question when you start your day. Pay attention to what is ahead of you and the feelings it makes you feel. If you're being true to yourself, it can be scary to admit that you're not living the life you want, but it's the only way to set yourself up to pursue something new—something that might just be your true calling.

Am I doing what I love?

As Jobs explained, to live someone else's life is to waste your own. Instead, he was urging you to find the role you were meant to fill.

“You have to find what you love. ... Your work will fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he used to say.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review concluded that to be fully engaged and happy, people need to feel that their work matters and that their contribution helps achieve something important.

When people find purpose in their work and love what they do, it will not only make them happier, but also increase their productivity.