In quarantine this year, we are coming off Memorial Day Weekend and we are also hearing a lot about Commencement Speeches – commencement because it marks the beginning of many students’ new lives in the world.

What could commencement also mean for us? Here is an excerpt from the prepared text of the Commencement Address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Can discussing death really be a conversation about being fully alive? 

Our younger daughter, while looking for an elective to take for the last semester of her college education, could only find one course to fit into her schedule. The name of the course was titled “On Death and Dying”. When she signed up, she thought she’d just endure it to get the course credits.

What she discovered turned out to be quite different. Her passionate professor had been leading this for over 20 years and enthusiastically taught how this course is about the challenge and the opportunity to treat life as a reverent gift. My daughter, after realizing this, said it was the best college course she took. Are we making the most of what our life can be?

Are we all in and living full out? Is this as good as we can get it to be?

“Peggy” Noonan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal recently and reflectively wrote:

“People have suffered. They’ve been afraid. The ground on which they stand has shifted. Many have been reviewing their lives, thinking not only of “what’s important” or “what makes me happy” but “what was I designed to do?” They’ve been conducting a kind of internal life review, reflecting on the decision that seemed small and turned out to be crucial, wondering about paths not taken, recognizing strokes of luck. They’ve been thinking about their religious faith or lack of it, about their relationships. Phone calls have been longer, love more easily expressed, its lack more admitted.”

Many people are in a reflective, thinking mode at this point in time.

I’ve been asking myself recently – what if a lot of my assumptions and possible beliefs up to this point are no longer accurate and appropriate?

I just read the book “Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong” s

It really got me thinking, given that it’s research based. I intend to re-read it.

I wondered – am I engaging in an intentionally and gratefully designed life that culminates our life learnings and has us living our lives in crescendo?

It also made me think about a poem I heard recited years ago, that starts:

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing…continues here

To quote Steve Jobs again:

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to 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. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle…” ~Steve Jobs, Stanford Speech – June 12, 2005

Finding your voice.  The essence of this 8^th Habit is that you will find your voice when you can say you are 100% involved with what you are doing in your life, so that your body, mind, heart and spirit are all engaged in whatever is important to you. To find your voice, you need to examine your natural talent, what you absolutely love to do, what really interests you. And you must listen to the confirming inner voice of your conscience that tells you what is the right thing to do. – based upon work of Stephen R. Covey

“We don’t invent our mission; we detect it.” ― Victor Frankl 

Don’t know your mission? Make it your mission to detect your mission.

You have a purpose in life. You know in your heart what’s most important to you. In fact, your mission and values are expressed every day, by how you live–you just may not realize it. We’re here to help you find the right words to put that mission down on paper.

Want a workbook resource with written exercises to serve this end?

GIST Workbook – Construct A Powerful 3 Year Vision starts with a question

The 3-year question: 

“If we were meeting here in 3 years time, and looking back over the previous 36 months, what would have to have happened to you both personally and professionally for you to be satisfied with your progress?”

As a local interfaith pastor suggested recently in a speech to a youth group:

“Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do that.”

We invite you to pass this newsletter on to anyone you’d like to share it with

Let’s keep connecting and authentically communicating – at your service…

Coach Don

Email: don@donsardella.com
Phone: (480) 580-7863
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