Follow Your Heart

Te-ge Bramhall sent me this Steve Jobs quote a few hours back, and I have been thinking about it since. Usually when this happens, I end up incorporating my thought into a post, so..

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’re already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

I’d already been thinking along those lines, and found this quote by Canadian author, Charles de Lint: “I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile”.

The quote obviously struck a chord when I shared it on social media, as it was “liked” and reshared a number of times over the next few hours.

After thinking about Steve Job’s quote, I began to appreciate what he was saying, especially about fear of embarrassment and failure. I’ve experienced both at different times in my life, and while they aren’t the most positive of emotions, they are a great learning tool.

An even greater learning tool is failure itself, especially when you make a point of applying the lessons learned.

I recently conducted a post mortem (for want of a better term) into a failure earlier in my life. I wrote down a series of questions about each event, how I felt at the time, what I could have done better, and about other people who were around at the time.

While it was suggested to me that I was being negative and morbid, I took the opposite view, and found it quite uplifting. You see, if we don’t learn from our mistakes and failures, we’ll be almost sure to make them again. “Moving on” means leaving things behind, not carrying them with us.

I was able to forgive myself, and others for their part, as well as recognizing what it was in myself that caused me to fail. (There were other factors as well, including the economic climate of the time, but if I had been more aware, I may have come out on top.).

There were a number positive things that I learned at the time, including the fact that I’m stronger and more durable than I thought, and that there are people who are able and willing to help, if you’re not too proud to ask.

Which brings us back to embarrassment. To me, that word can be tied to things like false pride, shame and loss of face. Is it shameful to fail?

Will it matter in 100 years?

We were born naked, and brought nothing into the world, and we will take nothing with us when we leave.

Which means that the best thing to do in life is follow our heart, our calling, love God and teach our children well.

Confucius was pretty right when he said that life is simple, and that we make it complicated!

WHat do you think?