“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.” ~ Steve Jobs,
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steve_jobs_416854

Your time is limited

I recently saw this quote subtitled “Your Time is Limited” by Steve Jobs. It’s one of many I found, but this is one that stood out and spoke to me.

I’m not an Apple fan, either in the computer or portable market but I respect the value these devices bring to the global community. I value Steve Jobs genius; if you can call it that. He definitely saw a market for his ideas, and he enjoyed converting his innovations into reality.

When I read this quote, I instantly connected to it. Reflecting upon my early life as a human being, I see where I fell into trap after trap, living the presence of a stranger. I hid the real me from the world. Even to this day, is some ways, I still do.

Staying true

I try hard to stay true to myself. It is hard in the politically correct world that appears to grow worse with each passing day. Ever since the failure of my first marriage, I realized the error of my ways, and I am a happier person. I took decades, but I think I finally found the real me hidden behind all those layers and masks.

Stripping them away, I found that the weight of hiding my true self-was slowly killing me. In the late 1990s, I knew without any doubt, I would be dead within five years, all from the weight of those masks and catsuit personas buried underneath. For a long time, I didn’t even realize what I was doing. Instead, I went about my day submitting to other’s expectations, not recognizing that time is short.

It was killing me.

I had to shed those layers, give up everything I had built, tear it all down, and start all over. What choice did I have? Continue existing an unfulfilling life and die? I finally woke up, slapped my face silly, and decided.

It’s a choice I happily made.

Choices and consequences

I’ve still made mistakes along the way, but I’m learning from each one. How does one stop making mistakes? I don’t know. What I do know is that from the errors, opportunities arise to learn from them and not repeat them. An ambitious goal I know. Yet I persevere on.

Am I where I want and need to be? No, not even close and I doubt I will ever get there. Still, I am miles further down that road than when I wore all of those masks and catsuits. Why is that? Keeping my business career separate from my personal life is one.

Sometimes I often yearn to work for a company in the sex industry just so I can open up more, be more of my true self. Reserved at work, I keep much of myself bottled up and behind a mask, and enveloped with an impermeable catsuit. I dive into my projects with a zeal that prevents the rest of me from breaking out.

At home, unlike friends, you can’t pick your family. They are something you have to accept. Well usually. Out of respect for family, I also cover up portions of the real me, though everyone knows that there is more than they care to recognize. Fortunately, I have a sibling whom I share most everything with, and while they don’t understand, they accept me for whom I am and don’t judge me according to their standards.

What now?

I have reached an age of enlightenment; I recognize I have just so many decades left to live my life. Time is limited. Steve Jobs advises that we should not live the results of other peoples think, don’t let their noise drown out your inner voice, and dare to follow your heart.

I am doing the best I can to follow that advice. I might even call it dogma. As the days pass, I forge ahead, if ever so slowly, feeling the happiness it brings, while doing the best I can to mitigate the barriers to reaching that goal. I’ll never, ever give up.

I can’t help but wonder, are you living your life and not someone else’s life?

I hope you are, but as you do so, you respect my right to live my life as I want to, and those of others all across the planet.

Have a good day and a better tomorrow. This is your favorite author, Richard Verry, signing off for now. I’ve got a new book to write.