How to Be the Best Version of You
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone
else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own
inner voice." --Steve Jobs
James Mitchell/Flickr
The late Steve Jobs speaks during his
keynote speech at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San
Francisco, California June 9, 2008.
Truly happy and successful people get that way by becoming the best,
most genuine version of themselves they can be. Not on the outside--on
the inside. It's not about a brand, a reputation, a persona. It's about
reality. Who you really are.
Sounds simple, I know. It is a simple concept. The problem is it's
very hard to do, it takes a lot of work, and it can take a lifetime to
figure it out.
Nothing worth doing in life is ever easy. If you want to do great
work, it's going to take a lot of hard work to do it. And you're going
to have to break out of your comfort zone and take some chances that
will scare the crap out of you.
But you know, I can't think of a better way to spend your life. I
mean, what's life for if not finding yourself and trying to become the
best, most genuine version of you that you can be?
That's what Steve Jobs meant when he said this at a Stanford University commencement speech:
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.
You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the
difference in my life.
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.
Now, let's for a moment be realistic about this. Insightful as that
advice may be, it sounds a little too amorphous and challenging to
resonate with today's quick fix culture. These days, if you can't tell
people exactly what to do and how to do it, it falls on deaf ears.
Not only that, but what Jobs was talking about, what I'm talking
about, requires focus and discipline, two things that are very hard to
come by these days. Why? Because, focus and discipline are hard. It's so
much easier to give in to distraction and instant gratification. Easy
and addictive.
To give you a little incentive to take on the challenge, to embark on
the road to self-discovery, here are three huge benefits from working
to become the best, most genuine version of yourself.
It will make you happy. Getting to know yourself will make you
feel more comfortable in your own skin. It will reduce your stress and
anxiety. It will make you a better spouse, a better parent, a better
friend. It will make you a better person. Those are all pretty good
reasons if you ask me.
Besides, you really won't achieve anything significant in life
until you know the real you. Not your brand, your LinkedIn profile, how
you come across, or what anyone thinks of you. The genuine you. There's
one simple reason why you shouldn't try to be something you're not, and
it's that you can't. The real you will come out anyway. So forget your
personal brand and start spending time on figuring out who you really
are and trying to become the best version of that you can be.
You pay a huge price when you engage in mindless distraction. The
only people that really care about you are your loved ones, your
friends and family. Everyone else is too busy living his own little mini
drama. To put it bluntly, your network could care less about you.
That's why engaging yourself and others in mindless distraction isn't
worth your time or theirs. More importantly, it will absolutely keep
you from focusing on accomplishing whatever great things you might
manage to achieve in life if set your mind to it.
There's a business concept called opportunity cost. When you choose
one course of action, you miss out on all the other opportunities you
might have chosen to pursue but didn't. People rarely stop to consider
that until it's too late.
It's the most exciting journey you will ever embark on. We're
all enthralled by adventure. We love to read and watch movies about
other people's journeys, real or imagined. The Hobbit. Raiders of the
Lost Ark. Into Thin Air.
We love to take vacations, to travel to all sorts of different
places. And when we do, we revel in the natural beauty of Kauai's Napali
coast, the Grand Canyon, the Alps. We marvel at the great works of
others: the art, the architecture, the Pyramids, Stonehenge.
And yet, the opportunity for adventure is right there in front of
each and every one of you. Until you take it, you'll never know what you
might achieve. What marvels you might create. What you might discover.
All you have to do is start the journey.
http://www.inc.com/steve-tobak/how-to-be-the-best-version-of-you.html
