Wow, this is a pretty crazy thread and the coincidence of me being here is interesting, but not nearly as much as josiah said previously. I rarely go outside of a couple of the pan houses, the tongue drums house and of course staying on top of the swap and sales, but today i am just clicking around during lunch (at work) and the title "LOST" just sparked my interest enough to click it and i have been feeling the same way, but i know that i need to make a change when the time is right to make it...I'm just jumping in to reply to add some excerpts from a Steve Jobs' speech gave at the 2005 Stanford graduation that hit home with me when i stumbled onto it a few weeks ago. Like i said, these are a couple excerpts from the speech, but for someone so accomplished (personal note, until i started reading more about the guy i wasn't a huge fan), he had the right outlook on life. I copied the link to it at the bottom if you want to read the rest, he does talk about finding what you love in the middle of the address, but after hearing the support of others, i went with the "life's too short" section of it...
'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.'
(A little later after explaining his first cancer scare)
'This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.'
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/06/141120359/read-and-watch-steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address
