Is life just about avoiding pain or is there something more. In Steve Jobs 2005 commencement address at stanford university Jobs attempts to inspire the graduating students by providing his perspective on the value of life. Jobs makes the claim that death is likely the single best invention of life jobs 2005 although a bit dramatic jobs offers a realistic and blunt perspective as a way to motivate the graduating class to follow their hearts and do what they love. Life is not about anticipating death but rather acknowledging it and using it as a tool to motivate you into doing what truly makes you happy.
During jobs speech he delivers three short stories from his life in order to get his point across. In his first story he claims that .You cant connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards jobs 2005 jobs also claims that you must have trust in some aspect of life and if you do it will make all the difference. In his second story he talks about how everything happens for a reason and loving what he did got him through one of the lowest points in his life. In his third story he reveals his near death experience with pancreatic cancer and how it enabled him to use death as a useful concept to motivate him to do what he loves.Jobs appears to look at life through a realists perspective. He acknowledges that no one is going to escape death a fact that many people choose to blissfully ignore yet he has somehow turned it into a motivation concept to encourage people to do what they love.
In Roger Ebert: the essential man by Chris Jones we see Roger Ebert continuing to do what he loves despite his health and circumstances. Ebert had made the claim that i believe that if at the end of it all according to our abilities we have done something to make others a little happier and something to make ourselves a little happier that is the best we can do jones both jobs and ebert believe that in order to live a fulfilling life you have to do something to make yourself happy as ebert had also said to make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts jones your happiness could be found in doing something for yourself or doing something for other people but it has to start with you. Despite roger eberts circumstances he manages to remain optimistic about his life choosing not to focus on what he lost but what he gained. This can be seen when ebert states when i am writing my problems become invisible and i am the same person I always was.
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All is well. I am as I should be jones it could be the lives challenges are what add meaning to your life. Its not what you are born with or what happens to you that matters its what you choose to do with it. As stated by Charles R. Swindoll life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. The most painful life experiences teach us the most valuable lessons but you never know what those lessons will be until youre on the other side. Despite jobs dramatic take on life his speech manages to remain motivational and looks more on the positive side of life.
Unlike shakespeare in hamlets soliloquy where hamlet believes that the struggles in life make life not worth living and that the only reason people dont end it all is because they are afraid of the uncertainty that comes after death. Even though jobs does reference death during his speech stating that death is very likely the single best invention of life he does not use it in a negative light jobs 2005 instead he uses it to make people aware of their limited time to encourage them not to waste it doing something that doesnt make them happy.
Life is not just about avoiding pain and suffering. Choosing to look at life as a pessimist as hamlet does can deprive you of the simple things in life. The obstacles that life throws at you though they make life much more difficult are essential in life. Without them no one would fully appreciate the joys in life. But just because life can be difficult at times that doesnt mean that people should completely ignore the good in life. The things that motivate you the things that make you want to get up in the morning those are the things that add value to life and make it worth living.
