Whenever I need to be inspired, I read this. It’s Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement address.

Jobs gives three great pieces of advice:

1) “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Sometimes in life things don’t go the way you expect them to. But when you look back, you see that it was those mistakes/unfortunate events that elevated you to something better. Everything happens for a reason, and if it were not for the bad things, you would never have the good.

Do the “dots” always connect? My experience so far would lead me to believe so. Although I don’t have the ability to see my alternate realities, I can honestly say that every apparently negative circumstance in my life has changed me for the better. And it is only after having some of my lowest lows that I have been able to experience my highest highs.

So when I’m feeling like it can’t get any worse, I just remember this one.

2) “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”

I first read this speech a couple years ago. I can’t remember how I found it or where, but I do remember why. I was experiencing on of those low, lows in life, and naturally, I was searching for a way out.

While completing my fifth consecutive engineering co-op term with the same company, and only months away from graduation, I was having doubts about my choices in life. I was good at what I did and I was successful by most standards, but I wasn’t fulfilled. And I definitely was not happy.

I had experienced a series of terms that went good, great, great, okay, TERRIBLE. Something had changed and I was no longer sure about my future in engineering. The company hadn’t changed. Nor did the work. At the time (and to be honest, even now) I felt that the reason was a change in the people. But looking back, I see that something else changed too: my values and priorities in life. I realized I didn’t really love what I did. It didn’t inspire me in any way, and I didn’t believe in it. The money was great, but I quickly learned that money alone is not enough to be happy.

This speech opened my eyes to the fact that is is possible, and indeed necessary, for me to love what I do. It put me on a mission to find what I really love. I’m still searching, but I know I’m a lot closer today than I was two years ago.

3) “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”

The first sentence here has to be my all time favourite quote. Just read it slowly a couple times and really think about what it means.

Sometimes we’re so afraid. But really, what do we have to be afraid of? After reading this, my worst fear would be to look back at the end of my life and know that I didn’t do something I wanted to do — or worse, that I didn’t even try. I can’t say that reading this makes me fearless, but it does make me think.

Now, whenever I have the option of doing something  ”great-but-risky” versus doing something “mediocre-and-safe” I come back to this piece of advice. So far my track record has been to pick “great-but-risky.” And so far so good: This maxim has been the reason behind some big decisions in my life: enrolling in MBET and making the move to Vancouver. But it also pushes me to do the little things: going to a networking event alone or volunteering to do a presentation.

Insight: It is by doing the things that seem the most risky, or the most uncomfortable to me that end up giving me the most success and the most happiness in life.